Self-esteem, stress and substance abuse among Makerere University Students

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between self-esteem, stress and substance abuse among Makerere University students. A correlational design was used and 50 female and 50 male students participated in the study and these were selected using the random sampling technique and data was collected using the Rosenburg self-esteem scale,t he perceived stress scale and substance abuse scale. Pearson correlation coefficient(r) was used to test the significance of the hypotheses and the results revealed that there is a significant relationship between self-esteem and stress ( r=.002, p <.01), there is a significant relationship between stress and substance abuse ( r=.039, p <.05) and lastly there is a significant relationship between self-esteem and substance abuse (r=.001, p < .01) among University students. I recommend swift psycho-education from professionals to communities around the entire country so as to combat these challenges easily when they emerge as issues among young people.