Abstract

Youths are important entities that through their inputs such as physical strength, mental capabilities and exposure serve as a great tool for improving their communities which makes it essential to determine the extent of their involvement in the development of their community. It is based on this that the study assessed the level of participation of rural youths in community development process in Osun state. Data were collected on level of participation, constraints, attitude, and benefits. A multistage sampling procedure was employed to obtain data from 135 rural youth between the ages of 18-35years. Structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Data were analysed using descriptive such as frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation and inferential statistical tools such as Chi-Square and Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) at p=0.05. Result shows that majority of the respondents (53.3%) were male, single (74.80%) and have membership in at least one organization (81.50%). The result also shows that marital status (?2=7.831; p=0.005), benefits such as increased self sufficiency, reduction in rate of unemployment, reduction in poverty rate(r=0.410; p=0.000), constraints such as lack of incentives, political constraints affected participation while(social constraint (p=0.006) and personal constraint (p=0.028) and attitude (r=0.410; p=0.006) were significantly related with their level of participation in community development. It is concluded that despite the constraints that youths face in their participation, lack of benefits that are afforded them, if given the opportunity to serve their communities, they are willing and ready to do so to the best of their abilities.

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