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.