Neighbourhood Characteristics and Psychosocial Health Among Young Adolescent Living in Urban Slum in Lagos State, Nigeria

Adolescence is viewed as a product of specific social, economic and cultural forces. It is a period when adult personal and social identities begin to take shape through the process of social interaction. Therefore, identity formation is a product of a process of negotiation that takes place throughout adolescence, making them a victim of social structural forces. Therefore, adolescent may be more vulnerable to negative psychosocial health  effect from distress and adverse urban slum characterized by congestion, high levels of unemployment, inadequate social services, extreme poverty, insecurity, crime, and hopelessness. The paper examines association of neighbourhood characteristic with adolescent psychosocial statues. Data for the study were obtained from a cross sectional survey among young adult, age 13-19, living in urban slums in Lagos State. Adopted a measuring scale for adverse environment and psychosocial attributes, data were analyzed using univariate and binary logistic regression analysis. The findings suggest among others that adverse neighbourhood characteristics in urban slum can be connected with unhealthy life style which reflects wide personal and social contexts and have implications for public health and social wellbeing. This paper calls for urgent intervention programmes and public health policy to addressing rapidly developing slum settlements in low income area. More research is also required to establish how these outcomes contribute to urban health challenges and insecurity.