Students’ perceptions of the causes and influence of drug abuse on their learning behaviour in public secondary schools, North-Centre Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Drug abuse among youths in Nigeria has become a national concern because it has serious impacts on their academic performances and future leadership potentials. Most of the studies in Nigeria youths related to drugs of abuse were among undergraduates and rarely in secondary schools. The study contributed to fill this gap by assessing students’ perception of the causes and influence of drug abuse on their learning behaviour.

Methodology:The study adopted a cross-sectional survey design to collect information from 6 public secondary schools in Bida, Niger-State, Nigeria. Data were collected through respondents filling the researchers self-developed questionnaire entitled “Students’ Perceived Causes and Influence of Substance Abuse” (SPCISA).

Results: This study found that majority of the respondents defined drug abuse as the use of drugs without prescription (87.6%) and/or the unusual use of prescribed medications (59.9%). Some of them identified perceived causes of using drug abuse to include poor parental influence (25.1%), peer pressure (25.1%) and the ready availability of drugs of abuse (32.7%). They also note some of the consequences as reducing their understanding of class lessons (69.9%), disobeying schools’ rules and regulations (25.1%), missing classes frequently (14.9%) and behaving irrationally (32.5%).

Conclusion: This study concluded that respondents had better understanding of what drug abuse is, some understanding of the perceived causes and subsequent consequences. It was suggested that there is need for more addiction prevention education in addition to policy makers taking appropriate measure to reduce availability of drugs of abuse.

Keywords: Drug abuse; Students’ perception of causes; Public secondary school; Bida.