Drugs and Substance Awareness: Gender Difference in Place, Media and Age at the Time of Awareness in Secondary School Students in Enugu State.

Abstract

Drug and substance abuse has been the concern of parents, school authorities and the society. This study set out to investigate the age at which young people become aware of drugs, the media through which the information is got and the most popular places of drug information and tried to find out if gender differences exist in these.

The survey design was used. The study area is Enugu State of Nigeria. Population of the study is the secondary school students of the state. Through the processes of stratification and multi-stage random sampling, a sample of 195 female and 205 male (N=395) was used.

A researcher-made questionnaire was validated and used for data collection. Data was analyzed using percentages and t-test to answer 4 research questions and test one null hypothesis. The findings showed among others that, Teacher, television and mother were the commonest media while the home and the school were the commonest places. Average age and time of drug awareness was 11.32 years. Significant gender differences existed in some of these. Implications of these findings were discussed and recommendations made. Guidance counselors need to assist and empower parents, teachers and television programmers to get the correct information to kids without exciting their curiosity.