Emergent Factors of Substance Abuse among Secondary School Students in Katsina State: Counselling Implications for National Development

Abstract

The use of drug and other substance is rising at an alarming rate among our populace especially the youth. It is so unbelievable and disturbing the rate and kinds of substances that are being abused now. Thus, the study employed the descriptive survey approach to prove how the use of alcohol, drug and other substance can be traced to factors that are biological, psychological, and social-environmental. A sample size of 142 subjects was purposively drawn from a population of 27, 057 students from schools in Katsina Zonal Directorate of Education. A self-designed instrument, the Substance Abuse Inventory (SAI) served for data collection. The instrument was validated by experts in the field of Counselling and Psychology and also by the NDLEA officials. With the use of the split half measure, a reliability coefficient of 0.79 was realized for the instrument. The Pearson ‘r’ statistical technique was used in testing the three formulated null hypotheses and results revealed that substance abuse correlated significantly with psychological and social-environmental factors but not with biological factors. Recommendations offered point to the fact that the society should be cognizant to the fact that because secondary school students are particularly vulnerable to the negative impact of such factors; effective counselling interventions should be utilized to help students cope with such potentially overwhelming behavioural requirements for the development of an efficient generation that will ensure the realization of a successfully developed nation