Drug use, risky sexual behaviors and depression among adolescent students of Buloba Secondary School.

Abstract

The study was conducted under the title Drug Use, Risky Sexual Behaviors and Depression among Adolescent students at Buloba Secondary School with the main aim of assessing the association between risky sexual behaviour, depression symptoms and drug use among Buloba secondary school students. The specific objectives of the study were to establish whether drug use is significantly related to depression among adolescents at Buloba secondary school, to establish whether drug use is significantly related to risky sexual behaviours among adolescents at Buloba Secondary School and to establish whether risky sexual behaviours are significantly related to depression among adolescent students. The study adopted a correlational design that used both qualitative and quantitative approaches and a cross sectional descriptive survey design which involved selection of a small sample of people from a bigger population to act as an inference and provide a snapshot of how things are at a specific time. The study involved a sample size of 132 participants selected using Morgan and Krejae 1970 table from the population of 200 students. The respondents were selected using both probability and non-probability sampling techniques and purposive sampling was also used to select key respondents who had vast knowledge about the research topic. The study utilized quantitative data collection method where primary data was obtained using questionnaires and secondary data was sourced from reading literature in relation to how drug abuse and depression influences the risky sexual behaviors. The data was analyzed using the pearson product moment and correction for hypotheses using practical analytical software (SPSS Version 24). The findings of the study revealed that there was a weak positive correlation between risky sexual behaviors and depression, risky sexual behaviors and drug abuse, and a moderate negative correlation between depression and drug abuse and only the correlation between depression and drug abuse was found to be statistically significant. The study concluded that there was a link between drug abuse, risky sexual behaviors and depression among adolescent students, highlighting the importance of addressing mental health issues in substance abuse treatment but the study did not find significant associations between risky sexual behaviors and either depression or drug abuse. The researcher made several recommendations which included both policy and institutional recommendations like promoting the integration of mental health services with substance abuse treatment, Government should launch anti-stigma campaigns to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health and substance abuse among other recommendations.