A United Kingdom (UK)-based Nigerian academic cum researcher, Dr Kennedy Oberhiri Obohwemu, has come out with a publication on what he calls Self-Comforting Attitude Theory (SCAT) and the Self-Comforting Attitude Scale (SCAS).

According to him, the publication, which is on mental health, has gained global attention because of its relevance to human behaviour.
Obohwemu, who is a lecturer at Oxford Brookes University, GBS Partnership, Birmingham, UK, told newsmen in Lokoja, over the weekend, that SCAS is a model designed to understand how individuals perceive and respond to self-soothing behaviours during times of emotional distress.

He added that the study, which was published in Mental Health & Prevention, a peer-reviewed journal by Elsevier indexed in Scopus and the Web of Science, has introduced an innovative approach to assessing emotional resilience, not just through behaviour, but through mindset and belief systems.

The researcher, who noted that his new work complements his previously published Self-Comforting and Coping Theory (SCCT) and Self-Comforting and Coping Scale (SCCS), said that the motivation for his research came from personal experience.
Obohwemu, who revealed that having moved to the UK just before the COVID-19 lockdowns, he found himself isolated, financially strained, and without support, said that during that time, he relied on internal coping mechanisms—what he now refers to as “self-comforting”—to manage the psychological burden.

He said: “We often talk about how people cope, but not enough about how they think and feel about their coping behaviours.

“Some view self-soothing as weakness, others as resilience. That attitude shapes everything—from mental health outcomes to whether people seek help.”