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

Chapter One

Objectives of the Study

The main objective of the study is to determine the relationship between drug use and abuse on students behaviour.

Parents teachers‟ and students perception on what influences adolescents to abuse drugs;
The perception of parents, teachers and students on adolescents‟ drug use and abuse;
The perception of parents,‟ teachers and students on drug use and abuse and its influence on students‟ academic performance; and
The perception of parents‟ teachers‟ and students‟ on which gender predominates in the frequency of drug use and abuse among adolescent students.

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

Concept of Drugs

Drug is defined as any substance, natural or artificial other than food, that by its chemical nature alters structure or function in the living organism (Oakey and Charles 2004). While Ike (2005) defined it as any substance that is harmful and alter the organic functions and the behavior of those who take them. Gerrard et al. (1999) defined it in a broadest sense as any chemical entity or mixture of entities other than those requires for the maintenance of normal health like (food), the administration of which alters biological function and possibly structure. The New Book of Knowledge (1992) defined drug as any substance used to treat or prevent disease, they are also used to relieve pain, to help control mental or physical ailments, and even to help diagnose illness.

Classification of Drugs

Drugs are grouped into four general categories;

Narcotics
Depressants
Stimulants, and
Hallucinogens

Narcotics: Are drugs that induce sleep or stupor and relieve pain. They are addicting. Opium, heroine, morphine, codeine, and synthetics like methadone and Demerol are narcotics.

Depressants: Are also called sedatives. They depress the central nervous system and can cause addiction. Alcohol, barbiturates (sleeping pills), and some tranquilizers such as valium and Librium are depressants.

Stimulants are drug that stimulate the central nervous system. They accelerate body processes, often to a dangerous degree. They produce a false sense of well-being which may be followed by severe depression. Amphetamines, pepbills, some weight reduction pills, methamphetamine (speed), and cocaine are stimulants.

Hallucinogens are mind-altering drugs. They cause hallucinations with frightening mental experiences. Examples include LSD, peyote, phencyclidine hydrochloride (PCP) (Ryder, 1990).

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH DESIGNS AND METHODOLOGY

This chapter is devoted to describing and explaining the various methods that was adopted in resolving the problems established earlier in chapter one. The descriptions are:

Research Design

Descriptive survey method was adopted for this study. This is in line with the assertion of Kerlinger (1973) and Ali et al (1991) that descriptive survey enables the researcher to discover the relative incidence and distribution characteristics of the population. The survey method was used due to the fact that the result of this research can be reliably generalized to the entire adolescents’ teachers and parents’ population in Niger.

Population for the Study

The target population involved all secondary school parents, students and teachers in Lagos State. The total population of secondary students in Lagos State is 335,843. Teachers‟ population was 8,769 and a total of 1.34 million parents who have children in secondary schools in Lagos State. Total population for the research is therefore 1,684,612.

CHAPTER FOUR

DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS

This chapter presents the analysis of data collected in order to test the four null hypotheses formulated for the study. The study is titled Parents, Teachers and students‟ perception of drug use and abuse and its influence on academic performance among adolescent students‟ secondary schools in Lagos state, Nigeria, 17^th edition was used for the analysis.

The 0.05 level of significance formed the basis for retaining or rejecting the hypotheses. A satisfactory scale was set to infer disagree and agree; 1.0 – 2.4 disagree, 2.5 – 4.0 agree. Disagree and strongly disagree were merged together while agree and strongly were merged together.

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The study was conducted to examine the perception of parents, teachers and students on drug use and abuse and its influence among adolescent students in secondary schools in Lagos State. Information was collected by means of questionnaires from three hundred and seventy-six respondents in six secondary schools in Lagos State.

SUMMARY

The study was conducted to examine the perception of parents, teachers and students on drug use and abuse and its influence among adolescent students in secondary schools in Lagos state. The objectives of the study were to identify parents‟, teachers‟ and students‟ perception on what influences adolescents‟ drug use and abuse, to determine the perception of parents‟, teachers‟ and students‟ perception on gender that predominates in to the frequency of drug use and abuse and to identify the perception of parents‟, teachers‟ and students‟ on drug abuse and its influence on students‟ academic performance.

Literature reviewed highlighted the effects of drugs on individual, society and on academic performance. It further highlighted the review of epidemiological study of drug use and abuse and its influence on academic performance. Descriptive survey design was used in carrying out the study. The population of the study was 1,684,612 which comprised of parents, teachers and students in secondary schools in Lagos state. A sample size of 384 parents, teachers, and students were drawn using both random and proportional sampling technique.

The data collected were analyzed using frequency, means scores to indicate the degree of differences between groups, while analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze the four Null hypotheses formulated for the study at 0.05 level of significant, which were all rejected. The findings revealed that academic and moral background of parents may have influence on adolescents‟ drug use and abuse. Drug use and abuse by adolescents is a form of paralytic behaviours and that drug use and abuse causes tension and anxiety which blocks intellectual functioning and may result to low output. It also revealed that male students who keep bad friends and who have no basic future livelihood may resort to drug use and abuse.

CONCLUSION

From the findings it can be concluded that all the respondents irrespective of their status have almost the same level of perception on what influences adolescents‟ drug use and abuse and that drug use and abuse can result into negative consequences including lower academic performance.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the findings the following recommendations were made

Adequate and effective guidance and counselling department should be made available in all public secondary schools in Lagos State.
Adequate medical facilities should be provided for emergencies, the medical history of all students registered into the schools should be recorded.
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.
The students should only be allowed to watch movies that are under parental guidance (PG).
The school authorities should ensure that no student is frustrated due to the inability to perform well in class and meet expected standards.
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.
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.

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