Self-esteem, depression and substance abuse among school going adolescents

Abstract

The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between self-esteem, depression and substance abuse among school going adolescents in a school located in Kampala district. The study targeted 100 adolescents and a Qualitative research design; correlational method was adopted to establish the relationship between the variables. A purposefully constructed self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from the 100 respondents. Collected data was analyzed using Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS-24) and Pearson correlation coefficient (r) was used to test the level of significance of the hypothesis. Results showed that there is no significant relationship between depression and substance abuse; (r=0.025 p=.0.803), Self-esteem and depression are also not significantly related; (r=.156, p=.0.112), the results also revealed that Substance abuse is not significantly related to Self-esteem among adolescents; (r=.138, p=.0.170).This study recommends that schools, organizations and institutions that deal with adolescents should endeavor to provide counselling to reduce high levels of stress which in turn may reduce intake substance abuse.