LOVE OF MONEY, PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOUR AND PERSONAL SENSE OF POWER AS PREDICTORS OF POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT DIMENSIONS AMONG UNDERGRADUATES IN SOUTH-EAST NIGERIA
SOURCE:
Faculty: Social Sciences
Department: Psychology
CONTRIBUTORS:
Nweke, K.O;
Anazonwu, C.O;
Nwafor, C.E;
ABSTRACT:
The study investigated love of money, prosocial behaviour, and personal sense of power as predictors of political engagement dimensions among undergraduates in South-East Nigeria. The participants were 1,158 undergraduates who volunteered from three randomly selected universities. The participants were made up of 541 (46.7%) males and 617 (53.3%) females with age range of 19 to 30 years, mean 23.33 years and standard deviation 2.82. The study deployed four instruments: political engagement scale developed in the course of the study, love of money scale by Tang & Chiu, (2003); prosocial behaviour scale by Afolabi, (2013) and personal sense of power scale by Anderson, John & Keltner, (2012). The study adopted predictive design and data analysis was done using multiple regression analysis. Hypothesis one was confirmed, result showed that love of money significantly and positively predicted political engagement dimension (electoral behaviour) among undergraduates at β = .01** p < .01 respectively. Hypothesis two was confirmed, result showed that prosocial behaviour significantly and positively predicted political engagement dimensions (electoral behaviour and social media) at β = .13**, p < .01, and β = .30, p < .01. Hypothesis three was confirmed, result showed that personal sense of power significantly and positively predicted political engagement dimensions (electoral behaviour, political voice, and social media) at β = .14**, p < .01, β =.12*, p < .05, and β = .01*, p < .05. Hence, love of money, prosocial behaviour and personal sense of power are significant predictors of political engagement dimensions (electoral behaviour, political voice, and social media engagement) among undergraduates in south-east Nigeria. It was recommended that incumbent government and politicians should deploy incentives like social welfare programmes which aim at general good to undergraduates so that they may engage in politics.