STUDENTS' PERCEPTION ON THE FACTORS INFLUENCING DRUG ABUSE

ABSTRACT

The study was conducted to determine students’ perception on the factors influencing drug abuse among senior secondary school students in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State. Four research questions were raised and three corresponding hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The population of the study was 3641 students while the sample size, was 182 which constitute 5% of the population of students that was randomly selected from SS2 students in Oredo Local Government area of Edo state. The instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire titled students’ perception on the factors influencing drug abuse among senior secondary school students in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo state (SPFIDA). The instrument was validated by three expects in the Department of Education. The reliability of the instrument was done using Cronbach Alpha statistics and it yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.77. Data collected were analysed using linear regression and Pearson Product Moment Correlation. The findings of the study showed that majority of the students in Oredo LGA of Edo state have high level of drug abuse; social media is a significant predictor of drug abuse, peer pressure is a significant predictor of drug abuse, gender is not a significant predictor of drug abuse. Based on these findings, it was therefore recommended that Government should conduct regular awareness campaign program to educate students on the implications of drug abuse. It was also recommended that parents should guide and monitor their children’s use of social media.