Peer pressure, locus of control and substance abuse among adolescents in Makindye division secondary schools.

Abstract

This dissertation presents a full account of the study carried out on Peer Pressure, Locus of Control and Substance Abuse among Adolescents in Makindye Secondary Schools. The main objectives of this study were; to establish if there is any association between peer pressure and adolescent substance abuse, to find out whether there is any association between locus of control and substance abuse and to examine whether there is any association between peer pressure and locus of control among the adolescents. In order to achieve the above objectives a well-structured questionnaire was administered to the population of interest and the data obtained was analysed using Ms-excel and SPSS data analysis tools of frequency tables and Pearson correlation. The positive results of this study are that the proportion of respondents who have fallen victims of substance abuse is relatively small and that there is a strong internal locus of control. Also results showed that there is moderate peer pressure Evidence on religion shows that most of the respondents were Catholic and the majority of them were aged between 15-19 years. There was no significant association between peer pressure and locus of control among adolescents. It has to be noted that most of the respondents stay with both parents and this could explain why peer pressure wasn’t related to locus of control in a way that the impact and influence parents have over the adolescents may model a certain kind of behavior. It is recommended that parents, who are partners and stakeholders in the education of their children, be involved more in the affairs of the schools. Parents should be on school management boards to influence policies that will guide and shape their children and the school administration could organize regular parent‟ meetings to talk about issues affecting the school since most of the behaviors adolescents engage in are either learnt from school or the home environment. This could help track and fight substance abuse among adolescents.