Self-esteem, depression and Substance abuse among school going adolescents in Wakiso District

Abstract

The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between self-esteem, depression and substance abuse among school going adolescents in a school located in Nansana municipality Wakiso district. The study targeted 88 adolescents, 46 males and 42 females and a qualitative research design; correlational method was adopted to establish the relationship between the variables. A purposefully constructed self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from the 88 respondents. Collected data was analyzed using Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS-24) and Pearson correlation coefficient (r) was used to test the level of significance of the hypothesis. Results showed that there is no significant relationship between Self-esteem and substance abuse; (r=-.051,p=.639), depression and Drug Abuse are also not significantly related; (r=-.267, p=.012), the results also revealed that Self-esteem is not significantly related to depression among adolescents; (r=.059, p=.586).This study recommends that schools, organizations and institutions that deal with adolescents should endeavour to provide counselling to reduce high levels of stress which in turn may reduce intake substance abuse.