Social support, stress and substance abuse among adolescents in City High School

Abstract

Drugs and substance abuse is one of the major problems affecting secondary school students. This problem impacts negatively on the academic, social, psychological and physical development among the abusers. This study was aimed at assessing the relationship between social support, stress and substance use among Adolescents. Drug abuse is the major global problem. In Kampala District, students are dropping out from schools due to this menace. Survey research design was used in the study. The study was carriedout in City High School. Stratified random sampling was used to select the sample size of the student respondents. A representative sample was randomly selected from one and five classes. A questionnaire was used to get information from the student respondents. The questionnaire was self-administered to ensure confidentiality. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) was specifically pearson product moment correlation used in data analysis. This findings of the study revealed that there is no significant relationship between social support and substance use, stress and substance abuse among adolescents. However, the results revealed that the study recommends that ministry of Education and sports set up conselling programs tohelp students cope with stress and consequecently reduce on the levels of substance abuse. Social support was significantly related to substance use.