Causes of drug abuse as expressed by secondary school students in Moro Local Government Area, Kwara State, Nigeria

Abstract

Increase in a number of young people abusing drugs has become a subject of public concern worldwide. Therefore, the study investigated the causes of drug abuse as expressed by secondary school students in Moro Local Government Area of Kwara State, Nigeria. The population of the study comprises of all the secondary school students in Moro Local Government Area. The descriptive research design of survey type was adopted for the study. Four hundred and thirty (430) respondents were selected for the study with the use of purposive, proportionate and simple random sampling procedures. Researchers’ designed questionnaire that had been validated by three experts in the related field was used for the study. A test-retest method was used to ascertain the reliability of the instrument and the result of 0.72r was obtained. Inferential statistics of chi-square was used to analyse the result of the stated hypotheses at 0.05 alpha level of significance. The result of the findings of this study showed that peer group and poor parental communication had an influence on the causes of drug abuse (428.01> 16.92 at 0.05 alpha level of significant, 234.00>16.92) among secondary school students. The researchers concluded that peer group influence and poor parental communication causes drug abuse among secondary school students in Moro Local Government Area, Kwara State, Nigeria. The researchers’ recommended among others that Parents should show love, happiness and also take responsibility for helping secondary students to attain wholesome development into responsible adults.