Effect of Communication Intervention Strategies on Awareness, Knowledge and Perception of Teachers’ on Substance Abuse Among Adolescents in Yaba/Shomolu Local Government

Abstract

The use of non-conventional drug is one of the risky behaviours adolescents practice due to lack of knowledge on the negative implications. This however raises serious concerns on the well-being and quality of life of adolescents who have devised new methods of abuse apart from the conventional methods and drugs. The school appears to be the place where this is practiced and transferred. The study assumes that this problem may persist and leave grave consequences if teachers especially are unaware of this fact. To curtail this, the study examined the effectiveness of communication intervention strategies such as the use of seminars, posters and fliers to improve the level of awareness, knowledge and perception of teachers on substance abuse among adolescents in selected secondary schools in Yaba/Shomolu, Lagos state. Premised on the elaboration likelihood model theory of persuasion and change of attitude as well as the source credibility theory, true-experimental design was used to collect data from 62 teachers (35=experimental and 27=control) from the four schools selected purposively at both pre and post-intervention stages. Findings revealed a significant difference in the level of awareness (pre-mean=71.48; post-mean=92.54), knowledge (pre-mean=51.14;post-mean=59.4) and perception (pre-mean=23.48;post-mean=27.02) of experimental groups on substance abuse among adolescents while that of the control groups remained the same. The study concludes that communication intervention strategies have positive effects on teachers’ level of awareness, knowledge and perception of substance abuse among adolescents. Recommendations were centred on the need for teachers to adopt preventive strategies in tackling this negative health practice among adolescents.

Keywords: Substance abuse, Awareness, Knowledge, Perception, Communication Interventions.

DOI: 10.7176/NMMC/83-05

Publication date:September 30^th 2019