EFFECTS OF DRUG ABUSE ON SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS LEARNING: A CASE OF STUDY OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN IKENNE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF OGUN STATE
ABSTRACT
Drug abuse, equally known as substance abuse, is the use of a substance usually for non-medical purposes which pose physical, emotional, social and mental threats to the users. Drug abuse penetrates across every phases of humanity, but more pervasive among adolescents and middle-aged youths. The study examines the effects of drug abuse on senior secondary school attitudes towards learning in Ikenne Local Government Area of Ogun State. The study adopted the two-stage sampling technique in which 120 respondents were randomly selected from four secondary schools in the study area. A well-constructed questionnaire was developed to generate data for the study via its administration to the respondents. The data were analyzed using the descriptive statistic analysis and the Pearson product moment of correlation was employed to test the hypothesis. Findings from the study reveal that alcohol is the commonest drug abused by the students; the perceived reasons for students’ engagement in drug abuse amongst others include to reduce fear and tension, to build-up self esteem, confidence and boldness, peer influence, ability to face crowd and experimentation and curiosity. Furthermore, a significant relationship was found to exist between drug abuse and students’ attitude towards learning (r=-0.347; p<0.05). To this end, the study suggested that schools should sensitize their students to that they will know that hard work secures success in life and they should be serious with their studies, in order to be useful to themselves, their families and the country at large.
1.1 INTRODUCTION
The occurrence of drug abuse has become endemic in the Nigerian society to the extent that secondary school students, who are mere adolescents, engaged themselves in drug abuse as a result of peer pressure or the parental influence, which some of their parents are drug-addict or former drug-addict. Drug abuse makes a student to become obstinate towards their parents and elderly ones, they also become unruly and unproductive to themselves and their family, as thereby constituting nuisance to the society.
The reality of drug abuse is as old as man. Drug abuse is in various forms spanning from the taking of hard drug to alcohol. Though, drug are very important to human health, as they prevents and cures diseases and other ailments in the body, but the excessive intake of these drugs have resulted into complex problems to as many people who are drug abusers. The effect of drug abuse is state and country differentials. In Nigeria, the establishment of many breweries and pharmaceutical companies has contributed to the high rate of drug abuse due to increasing their turn-out of these products. There are classifications of drugs for different reasons; there are medical drugs for preventing and curing of diseases or pains. The social drugs are used for social and religious reasons while no-medical drugs are neither for medical nor socio-cultural reasons.
