SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS OF DRUG ABUSE AMONG ADOLESCENTS IN SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN THE FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY, ABUJA, NIGERIA.

Abstract

This survey study examined Socio-economic Implications of Drug Abuse among Adolescents in the Secondary Schools, Abuja FCT, Nigeria. Five (5) research questions and three (3) hypotheses tested at 0.05 alpha level guided the study. Using Taro Yamane formula for sampling techniques, 400 respondents were sampled from the total population of 70162 secondary school adolescents in Abuja. The instrument for data collection was the researcher’s structured questionnaire titled “Adolescents Drug Abuse Questionnaire” (ADAQ). The instrument was validated by three experts from Sociology department, University of Abuja, Nigeria. The instrument has five clusters and Cronbach Alpha Statistics was used to estimate the reliability co-efficient value of each. Their respective values were 0.612, 0.93, 0.71, 0.52 , 0.59 and the overall reliability of 0.515. Mean (x) and standard deviation (SD) was used to answer the research questions while t-test and ANOVA tested the hypotheses. The major findings were; there is high rate of drug abuse amongst adolescents in senior secondary schools in Abuja, the anti-social behaviours of most adolescents in schools and the larger society are traced to drug abuse. The academic performance of most adolescents are bastardized by drug abuse and rendered them school dropout. Based on the findings, the researcher recommended that aggressive enlightenment on the ills of drug abuse should be carried out by schools, government, religious bodies and others. Punitive punishment of drug abuse should be implemented. Parental responsibilities should not be taken for granted and that adolescents should be equipped with skills for industry and financial independence.