Influence of Socio-economic Factors on Youth Participation in Community Development Projects in Kwara State, Nigeria.

Abstract

Community participation illustrates the role played by communities and stakeholders in the policy making and implementation processes of a municipality. This study, which sought to investigate community participation in the context of youth involvement adopted descriptive survey, research design of ex-post facto in order to examine the influence of education and economic variables on youth participation. The researcher adopted simple random sampling to select 238 youths from Kwara North and Kwara Central senatorial districts in Kwara State, Nigeria. The instrument used for the study was Youth Participation Community Development Assessment Scale ( YPCCAS r = 0.74). The findings indicated that signcant relationship existed between economic variables and youth participation in community development r = 0.023, N= 238, P> 0.72. The result revealed' that significant relationship existed between education and youth participation in community development, r = 0.486, N= 238, P<0.00: Thus, it was recommended that youth participation in community development can be enhanced if the level of education of the participants is improved and they are aware of the benefits of such projects to their communities. With higher levels of education the youth will be encouraged and enlightened on the reasons why they should contribute to the success of the community development projects in their communities.