Domestic violence, codependency and drug abuse among adolescents

Abstract

This study aimed at finding out the relationship between domestic violence, codependency drug abuse among adolescents. The study targeted 80 adolescents in the few villages in Kawempe division in Kampala district in Uganda. The respondents who took part in the study were in the age bracket of 13-22 and both male and female were sampled who were living in that area at the time of the study. They were asked about their age, sex, religion and the person who they stay with at the time of the study. The specific objectives of the study were to examine the relationship between domestic violence and drug abuse among adolescents, to examine the relationship between codependency and drug abuse among adolescents and to examine the relationship between domestic violence and codependency among adolescents in Kawempe division in Kampala district. The questionnaires were designed to measure for domestic violence, codependency and drug abuse and they were administered to 80 adolescents using simple random sampling. The hypotheses were tested using Pearson correlation coefficient. Study results showed that there is a significant relationship between domestic violence and drug abuse among adolescents (r= .665**, p=.000).Results also showed that there is no significant relationship between codependency and drug abuse among adolescents(r=.028, p=.808) and also there is no significant relationship between domestic violence and codependency among adolescents (r=-.038, p=.740). The study findings indicate that the use of alcohol or other drugs may increase the likelihood that a batterer will commit an act of domestic violence because it reduces inhibitions and distorts perceptions, because alcohol is often used as an excuse for violence, and because both alcohol abuse and domestic violence tend to follow parallel escalating patterns but it does not fully explain the behavior.