Construction of a Socio-economic Status Scale for Rural Dwellers in Northern Nigeria

Actual assessment of the socio-economic status (SES) is best carried out through a well constructed SES scale in line with the dynamic nature of SES indicators in every community. Therefore, this study was carried out to construct a standardised SES scale for rural dwellers in northern Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was used for this study. Simple random sampling technique was used to select a state from each of the 3 geo-political zones of northern Nigeria. Random sampling technique was used to select 30% of the Local Government Areas (LGAs) in each selected state; to have 3 from 11 LGAs in Gombe, 7 from 23 in Kaduna and 5 from 16 in Kwara states. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 2 villages from each LGA to ensure that the selected villages were not from the same side of any LGA. Then, random sampling technique was used to select 13 household heads from each of the villages given a total of 390 respondents. Interview schedule was used to collect data for the study. Sigma scoring method was used to measure the variables while Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) and t-test were used for data analysis. Only 28 of the items collated were discovered valid, to be standardised into SES scale, when item analysis was conducted with r≥0.30 considered good for assessing SES of the rural dwellers in the northern Nigeria. There was a significant difference between high and low socio-economic status rural dwellers (t=2.33, p=0.03); indicating that the scale was valid. Similarly, high correlation (r=0.69; p=0.02) of the split-half score of the respondents for the reliability test shows that the scale was reliable. Therefore, the scale is recommended for the researchers in rural sociology, rural development agencies and policy makers towards better life for rural dwellers in the study area.