Transportation, Gender and Psychological Distress in Ibadan City, Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The paper examined the effects of urban transport infrastructure condition and intra-urban travel on the psychological well-being of women and men in Ibadan city, Nigeria. The study used primary data which were obtained through a cross-sectional survey of 721 households in Ibadan, Nigeria. The result of the regression analysis showed that urban transport infrastructure condition and intra-urban travel has significant effects on the psychological well-being of women and men. The effects are found to be more on working and nursing mothers (R² = .367**) compare to the effects on working men (R²    = .264**). These findings showed that urban transport infrastructure condition and intra-urban travel constitute a major threat to psychological well-being of women and men and the effect is more on the psychological well-being of women than of men due to gender differences in the socially prescribed roles. The result further showed that, the effect of intra-urban travel indicators on women’s psychological distress (R²    = .162**) is more than that of urban transport infrastructure condition (R²    = .020*). The result of the correlation analysis showed significant relationship between intra-urban travel and age (r = -.168*), household size (r =. 229*) and age of the youngest child (r = -.219**). The result also shows negative relationship between intra-urban travel and income (r = -.119), age (r = -.168*), presence of housemaid in the household (r = -.019) and age of the youngest child (r = -.219**). The result further shows positive relationship between intra-urban travel and household size (r = .229**) and number of children in the household (r = .101). The issue of concern therefore is to make intra-urban transportation not only accessible, safe, affordable and appropriate, but also gender sensitive. The result of the correlation analysis showed that policies that improve the socio-economic status of women could reduce the frequency of women intra-urban travel, thereby reducing the psychological distress due to intra-urban transportation.