Drug abuse, mental health and sexuality among the youths of Kampala

Abstract

The study aimed at examining the relationship between drug abuse, mental health and sexuality among the youth in Namuwongo Parish. The objectives of the study were to find out the relationship between drug abuse and sexuality, to find out the relationship between drug abuse and mental health, to find out the relationship between mental health and sexuality. The study adopted a quantitative study design and a simple random sampling technique was used to draw a sample of 196 respondents. Data was collected with the help of questionnaires whereby participants were required to tick or circle the most appropriate response and the validity of the instruments was determined by pretesting in a similar area with people that have similar characteristics with the study population. Descriptive statistics showed that majority of the respondents were male (62.8%) and the rest were female (37.2), the majority of the respondents r(49.0%) and also the majority of the respondents were self-employed (38.8%). Results from Pearson product moment correlation coefficient (r)indicated that there is a negative weak statistically significant relationship between drug abuse and mental health (r= -0.203**, p<0.01). Since the p value (0.04) is less than the level of significance we reject the null hypothesis and conclude that drug abuse can affect someone‟s mental health.as well as a negative weak statistical significant relationship between drug abuse and sexuality (r= -0.151*, p<0.05). Since the p value (0.035) is less than the level of significance (0.05) we reject the null hypothesis and conclude that drug abuse can affect someone‟s sexuality. And also, a positive weak statistical significant relationship between mental health and sexuality (r=0.391**, p<0.01). Since the p value (0.000) is less than the level of significance (0.01) we reject the null hypothesis and conclude that mental health can affect someone‟s sexuality., It was recommended that counseling services should be set up in the communities to help individuals battling with drug misuse and addiction so as to also reduce on the levels of individuals likely to develop mental disorders