PERCEPTION OF DRUG USE AND ABUSE ON STUDENTS BEHAVIOUR IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS

PERCEPTION OF DRUG USE AND ABUSE ON STUDENTS BEHAVIOUR IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS

ABSTRACT

This study was conducted to find out the perception of drug use and abuse on student’s behavior in public secondary schools in Lagos State.

Chapter one presented the background of study which consists of statement of the problem, research questions, research hypothesis, significance of the study, purpose of the study, delimitation, limitations as well as definition of term. Review of related literature was carried out in chapter two on the prevalence of drug use and abuse among Nigeria student, types of drug abuse, cause of drug abuse, signs and symptoms of drug abuse, effect of drug abuse, theories of drug abuse. Chapter three discusses the methods and procedures employed for the study, the chapter covered areas such as research design, population of the study, sample and sampling techniques, research instrument validity and reliability of the instrument, data collection data analysis pilot study. Chapter four presents data analysis and discussion of findings, data collected was analysed and processed through the use of chi-square (x2) statistics with 3 degree of freedom and 0.05 level of significance for hypothesis were rejected and therefore significant while one hypothesis was accepted and therefore not significant.

Based on the findings the following recommendations were made

1.      Adequate and effective guidance and counselling department should be made available in all public secondary schools in Lagos State.

2.      Adequate medical facilities should be provided for emergencies, the medical history of all students registered into the schools should be recorded.

3.      Lagos State government should organize part-time vocational studies for students in public secondary school so as to prevent boredom and to enhance he development of their skills.

4.      The students should only be allowed to watch movies that are under parental guidance (PG).

5.      The school authorities should ensure that no student is frustrated due to the inability to perform well in class and meet expected standards.

6.      The community and parents should live according to expected moral standards in order to influence the young positively as they imitate the elders in all manners.

7.      The ministry of Education should ensure that drugs cannot be within reach of the students easily, the assumption is that if the substance is easily accessible the motivation to abuse becomes higher than if it was hard to get.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

The abuse of drugs constitutes one of the most important risk taking behaviour among adolescents and young adults in secondary schools. Despite worldwide concern and education about psychoactive substances, self medication and misuse of illicit drugs, many adolescents have limited awareness of their adverse consequence.

Drug use is as old as the history of human race people have used herbs, roots, barks, leaves and all kinds of plant to relieve pain and help control disease. When drugs are properly administered, they become a blessing to human beings. It should, however, be noted that some drugs unfortunately produce enticing side effects such as a sense of feeling good, elation serenity and power such that what began as means of relaxation evolved in time into a problem of  dependence and abuse.  (Karechrio,1996). Drug can be defined as a substance that is purposely introduced into the body to change normal body functions.  Drug abuse explains the persistent excessive use of chemicals or substance for any reason other than its acceptable medical purpose. The influence of drugs is on the students behavior has been documented. Kaire (2005), noted that drug abuse have been identified as a major cause of unrest in public secondary school leading to poor performance in exams and mass drop  outs of students from secondary schools.