Depression, substance abuse and coping strategies among university students

Abstract

The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between depression, substance abuse and coping strategies among university students at Makerere University, and higher education centre area located in Kawempe division, Kampala. The study targeted 252 university students, 100 males and 152 females aged 19-45 years of age and a quantitative research design; correlational method was adopted to establish the relationship between the variables. A constructed self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from the 252 respondents. Collected data was analyzed using Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS Version, 24) and Pearson Correlation Coefficient (r) was used to test the level of significance of the hypotheses. Results showed that there is no significant relationship between depression and substance abuse (r = -.066, p = .493.), depression and coping strategies are also not significantly related (r = .154, p = .111), Results lastly revealed that Substance abuse is significantly related to coping strategies among university students (r =.243*, p = .011.). It was recommended that Local council authorities and University administrations should put in place effective counseling sessions for students who are affected by depression and have a substance abusing behaviour since it may affect the overall functioning of adolescents in their studies. Psycho education training's should be provided to adolescents to equip them with diversity of skill on how to cope with stress.