Social support, depression and substance abuse among adolescents in Kampala City

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between social support depression and substance abuse among adolescents in Kampala city the objectives of this study focused on examining the relationship between social support and depression, the relationship between social support and substance abuse and well as the relationship between depression and substance abuse. Using the sampling table developed by Krejcie and Morgan (1970) a sample size of 100 participants was selected out as a sample. An accidental sampling technique was used to collect the data and using the statistical package for social science (SPSS) data was analyzed to give results. A Pearson’s correlation was used to test the hypothesis. Our study comprised of more female participants within average of 66.0% than the male participants with an average of 34 .0%. Many participants were aged 15 to 19 years. The study results implied that there is a significant relationship between social support and depression among adolescents (r= -.540, P=.000<0.01). Furthermore, there’s also a significant relation between social support and substance abuse among adolescents (r=.497,P=.000<0.01). however, there is significant relationship between depression and substance abuse (r=-.337,P=.001<0.01).In a nutshell, social support has a significant destructive impact in the lives of adolescents as it’s a major reason for their involvement in depression due to poor communication between the parents and their children. However, with influence form good social support networks among adolescents, depression van be amicably handled as well as deny a chance of drug or substances to play in the lives of adolescents. Therefore, we recommend adolescents to find good peers for social support as this will help them to with better coping strategies to overcome stressful events while at the school and home environment and as well engage in substance abuse.