Abstract

The study determined the relationship between socioeconomic status and anxiety among pregnant women in North Central Nigeria. The choice of pregnant women as a target group is justified by the fact that women are important agents of change in the society whose physical, psychological and social wellbeing need to be safeguarded. Correlational research design was adopted. A questionnaire on Socio-economic Status and Anxiety among Pregnant Women (QSSAPW) was adapted for data collection. The instrument was validated and an index of 0.83 (83%) was obtained. Cronbach alpha method of testing reliability was used in establishing a reliability coefficient of œ = 0.80. Data were analyzed using chi- square statistics. The population of the study was 7,058, from which 979 pregnant women were randomly selected as sample. 810 Questionnaire were rightly completed and used for analysis. Findings revealed that while education level showed a significant relationship with anxiety among pregnant women, occupation status and income levels show no relationship with anxiety level. It is recommended that anxiety screening needs to be rendered by counsellors to pregnant women regardless of their education status.