Socioeconomic Challenges of Adolescents in Karalugwe, Adamawa State, Nigeria: A Qualitative Approach

The study explored socioeconomic challenges that adolescents in Karalugwe face as they grow up. These challenges form a significant aspect of adolescents’ social progression and healthy development in the pursuit of their life’s ambition and goals. Focus Group Discussion technique was used to generate responses from 33 adolescents, 15 males and 18 females who were randomly selected for discussion. Responses were recorded in a notebook and analyzed which revealed the challenges that adolescents, both in-school and out-of-school in rural areas face. The results revealed that adolescents in Karalugwe have enormous difficulty in accessing education, social amenities, health care services, clean water and security. The study concludes that rural adolescents face stiff resistance on the path to fulfilling their life’s ambition. In order to have equal opportunities for all, it is important that the gap arising from low level socioeconomic conditions of adolescents in rural areas be minimized by providing means and facilities for accessing quality education, efficient and affordable health care, social amenities, roads infrastructure and security. Infrastructural development such as roads and provision of social amenities would be required to close the gap between rural and urban adolescent’s lives in terms of socioeconomic progress that would facilitate easy flow of information, goods and services including people who produce them.