| dc.description.abstract | Substance use/abuse as shown by many studies is a serious problem in Kenya and world over. Studies indicate adolescents’ substance use and abuse in secondary schools affect social behaviour. Strikes, stealing, running away from school, and other forms of antisocial behaviour are due to substance abuse. Kisumu County is listed by studies as leading in the use and abuse of substances among people aged 12-65years. In Nyanza, the prevalence among adolescents stands at 10%, while Kisumu County accounts for 26.8%. There has been a dearth of studies on adolescent substance use/abuse and its impact on social behaviour in public secondary schools in that area. This present study therefore, was conducted based on this existing knowledge gap. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the influence of adolescents’ substance use and abuse on social behaviour in public secondary schools in Kisumu East Sub-County. The objectives of the study were to: determine the prevalence and gender disparity in substance use and abuse among adolescents in secondary schools, examine the extent to which parents, peers and the media influence adolescents’ substance use and abuse, establish the influence of substance use and abuse on the adolescents’ social behaviour, explore perceived strategies used to curb substance use and abuse among adolescents in secondary schools. The study was guided by Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory and a conceptual framework. Both descriptive survey and correlational research designs were used. The study’s target population comprised 7528 secondary school students of ages 14-19 and 41 teachers in charge of guidance and counselling. Schools were sampled using stratified sampling technique. An acceptable representative sample of 366 adolescents was derived from Fisher’s sampling formula and 12 teachers in charge of guidance and counselling automatically qualified since their schools formed the study’s sample. Questionnaires and interview schedule were used to collect data. Reliability for the questionnaires was obtained through test-retest method. The two tests from the pilot study were correlated using Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation and they yielded a coefficient of .780. Specialists in the Educational Psychology Department determined the research tools’ face and content validity. The study employed descriptive statistics such as frequency counts, percentages, means and standard deviations to analyse quantitative data. Inferential (t-test) was used to test the gender disparity in substance use and abuse while Pearson Product Moment correlation and multiple regression models were used to establish the relationships and influence among the variables. Qualitative data was transcribed and organized as per the objectives and reported. The findings of the study indicated that there is a prevalence of 38.2% of substance use and abuse among adolescents. No significant gender difference was found in adolescents’ use and abuse of substances. A positive significant relationship was found to exist between adolescents ’use and abuse of substances and peers’ influence (β=-.135, p=.007). However, there was negative significant relationship between parents and media influence on the one hand and adolescent substance abuse on the other (β=-.288, 0=.000) and (β=-.153, p=.002) respectively. Also, a positive significant relationship exists between use abuse of substances and adolescents’ antisocial behaviour (r=.525, p<.000). Hierarchical regression results indicated that the selected factors accounted for 13.2% variance in substance use/abuse. Strategies used to counter substance use and abuse were: severe punishment to those abusing substances, incorporating in the curriculum aspects reinforcing self-esteem, assertiveness, problem solving and self-control skills as well as use of guidance and counselling. Findings of this study may be useful to MoE, students and other stakeholders like parents and teachers to develop effective strategies to mitigate substance use/abuse in secondary schools. | en_US |
