Social pressure, anxiety and drug dependency among students of Makerere University

Abstract

Drug dependence has become a large phenomenon in Uganda affecting all social segments. The use of marijuana, alcohol, tobacco, codeine, cocaine and other various drugs is a wide spread phenomenon among youths. The abuse of psychoactive drugs among youths is an issue of national importance. The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between social pressure, anxiety and drug dependence among university students in Makerere University, an educational institution in Rubaga division, Kampala. The study targeted 100 students, 34 males and 66 females aged 17-30 years of age and a qualitative research design; correlational method was adopted to establish the relationship between the variables. A constructed self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from the 100 respondents. Collected data was analyzed using Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS Version, 23) and Pearson Correlation Coefficient (r) was used to test the level of significance of the hypotheses. Results showed that there is a significant relationship between social Pressure and anxiety (r=.330**, p<0.01), as well as anxiety and drug dependence among university students (r=0.167**, p<0.01), Results also revealed that social Pressure is significantly related to drug dependence among university students (r=.402**, p<0.01).