The role of psychoactive substances and religiosity on perceived academic performance among university students in Sokoto, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Different factors influence academic performance. In many studies, religiosity and psychoactive substances including alcohol are factors that have been frequently reported. To the authors’ knowledge, no study was reported among University students in Sokoto, north western Nigeria. This study assessed how psychoactive substances and religiosity influence academic performance among University students in Sokoto.

Methodology: A total of 1884 questionnaires were retrieved for analysis from the 2200 sampled students (84.5%). This was obtained through simple random sample designed to produce a representative sample of students of the University. Data was entered into Microsoft excel and converted to SPSS for Windows for analysis. Simple frequency tables and proportion to describe the results were made. P–value was set at less than 0.05.

Results: Mild psychoactive substances such as caffeine and Kola nitida were the most common substances used among the subjects and majority of them reported being very religious. Subjects who reported having good academic performance were less likely to report use of psychoactive substances and were more likely to report being very religious.

Conclusion: The present study suggested that academic performance is influenced by both religiosity and use of mild psychoactive substances.

Key Words: Alcohol, Religiosity, Students, Academic performance, University.