Drug Abuse on Socio-emotional Behaviour Among Secondary School Students in Kaduna State, Nigeria.
ABSTRACT
This study made used of survey design to examine Drug Abuse on Socio-Emotional Behaviour Among Secondary School Students in Kaduna state. Five objectives, research questions and hypotheses were stated which guided the study. To achieve the objectives, data were collected from 370 (male=227 and female= 143), participants using a questionnaire structured on four points fixed response format. The collected data were sorted and analyzed to test the five non directional hypotheses using independent sample t- test and chi square at alpha = .05.
The result identified curiosity, peer pressure, and inability in maintaining inter-personal communications among others as significant factors influencing drug abuse among students, χ 2 (9) = 120.720, p < .05. Drug abuse also significantly influence social, t (198) = 8.45, p < .05, and emotional behaviour, t (198) = 7.64, p < .05, of secondary school students in Kaduna State with more males than females being affected. It also revealed that drug abuse negatively influences students school work, χ2 (3) = 41.21, p < .05 with users reporting poor level of school work compared to others.
Gender was also found to significantly influence drug abuse, χ2 (3) = 33.76, p < .05 with more males than females secondary school students in Kaduna State reporting drug abuse behaviour. Based on this, it was recommended that parents should make deliberate effort to instill high moral standard and ensure they monitor the kind of friends their children hang out with in the community, as doing so will help reduce drug abuse behaviour among secondary school students in Kaduna State, Nigeria.
INTRODUCTION
The abuse of drugs among youths has become a major national problem in Nigeria. The Youths who are expected to be leaders of tomorrow have been rendered useless to themselves and the societies in which they live, due to the impact of drug on them, thus, contributing to the increase in the number of psychiatric patients, street boys, school dropouts and delinquents. Drug abuse is a rapidly growing global problem (Lakhanpal, Agnihotri, 2007; United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, 2007; Abudu, 2008).
The problem of drug abuse poses a significant threat to the social, health, economic fabrics of the families, society and the entire nations (Giade, 2012; Oshodi, Aina & Onajole, 2010). Almost every country in the world is affected from one or more drug being abused by its citizens. The increased of drug abuse globally has brought problems such as increase in violence and crimes and diseases such as HIV/AIDS, collapse of the veins and collapse in the social structure (UNODC, 2007; Oshodi, Aina, & Onajole, 2010).
Horrible youthful activities are widespread in Nigeria to the extent that they have been giving a lot of concern to the society, government and other stake holders in Nigeria. In primary schools, peers engage in organized crimes and disrupt normal academic programs. In secondary schools, the activities of secret cults are known to have been source of threat to lives and property. In tertiary institutions, a lot of ritual killings are taking place. (Abudu, 2008; Oshodi, Aina, & Onajole, 2010).
The impact of drug abuse among Nigerian students has been a feature of a morally bankrupt, corrupt and wasted generation and loss of our societal values and ideals. The situation now appears to be such that no one can argue ignorance of what is happening (Abudu, 2 2008). “one cannot sit and pretend that he/she has not seen the menace of drug abuse among adolescents” (Hamisu, Ahmad & Lim, 2014).
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StudentsandScholarship Team.