Effect Of Substance Abuse On Academic Excellence In Undergraduates

Introduction

The incidence of increase in the rate of drug abuse in Nigeria, particularly among adolescent led to the establishment of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in 1990. The agency’s investigative report revealed that adolescents and youths between the ages of 15 to 30 years constitute the high risk group in drug abuse (NDLEA, 1992). The Police Community Relation Report (2000) showed that the great number of adolescents and youths from different secondary and tertiary institutions across the country arrested in connection with violent and criminal cases in Nigeria were drug abuse-related. Drug abuse has become a medical, economic, and social problem that effects individual and the community at large.

Drugs are substances that change a person’s mental or physical state. A drug may be defined as any licit or illicit substance that when swallowed, smoked, sniffed or injected influences the function and operation of the body and mind. They can affect the way your brain works, how you feel and behave, your understanding and your senses. This makes them unpredictable and dangerous, especially for young people. This includes virtually all types of materials and substances including food, ingested, inhaled or injected into the body .From these definitions, it shows that heroin, cocaine, marijuana, barbiturates, amphetamine, alcohol, coffee and cigarettes are classified as drugs.

Substance abuse may reduce undergraduate chances of graduating from school or of landing and holding a steady job, it may also be causing student unrest in the campus which will disturb academic calendar and this may also lead to poor academic performance.

Bureau of Justice Statistics (1992) posited that cognitive and behavioural problems experienced by alcohol and drug-using youth may interfere with their academic performance and also present obstacles to learning for their classmates.

Statement of Problem

The rate of drug abuse amongst undergraduates has become very alarming and worrisome.

Young people who persistently abuse substances often experience a lot of problems including academic difficulties, health related problems (including mental health), poor peer relationships and involvement in social vices such as stealing, bullying, secret cult activities all these have negative consequences on family members, community and the entire society.

According to report from Osun State NDLEA (2010) about four-eight students were caught abusing drug in the year 2009, while, many of them are yet to be caught. Studies have shown that youth constitute the high risk group of drug dependence and substance abuse (Obot, 1989, NDLEA, 1996).

The misuse of these drugs cause these kids to be non challant about their academics, life and everyone around them.

Objectives of Study

The Objectives of this study is to observe the effect of drug abuse on the academic performance of students and the student’s personality and the main objective of this study is to assess the level of substance abuse among students

Specific Objectives

1. To assess the knowledge and source of substance abuse.
2. To determine the substance commonly abused among students.
3. To determine the level of substance abuse.
4. To assess the consequences of substance abuse among students.

Purpose of the Study

The primary objectives of the study is to:

1. Investigate if there is a relationship between drug abuse and truancy among undergraduate Students and their academic performance.
2. Determine if there is a significant relationship between drug abuse and cultism among undergraduate students.
3. Explore if there is a significant relationship between drug abuse and prostitution/sexual harassment among undergraduate students.

Hypotheses

The following hypotheses were formulated to guide the study

1. There is no significant relationship between drug abuse and truancy among undergraduate students.
2. There is no significant relationship between drug abuse and cultism among undergraduate students
3. There is no significant relationship between drug abuse and high risk sexual behaviour among undergraduate

Literature Review

In order to acquire a better understanding of drug, drug abuse and drug dependence, some knowledge of the psychological, pharmacological and social theories are relevant. This is fundamentally so

because human behaviour is generally divided into those activities that are voluntary and therefore mediated by the brain and those that are learnt (Folawiyo, 19988). Both types of behaviours involve reflex areas that include a sensory, input path, control Centre, output path and effect.

According to psycho-analysts and behaviourists, the primary reinforcer for drug dependence is psychological. Particularly for Freud (1949 & 1953), such behaviour is reinforced by the instinctive drive or pleasure principle. Hence, the constant use of psychedelic drugs (like Marijuana) is directly reinforced by their soothing effect on the brain. Similarly, Skinner (1969) contends that this whole theory of psychological dependence is one of positive reinforcement. Experts in the field of pharmacognosy have a contrary opinion. They argue that the reinforcement potential of drugs is much greater from the pharmacological stand point than from the psychological.

Folawiyo(1988), aptly expresses the argument that for a person to become dependent on a drug, he must have a drug experience. If the psychoactive effect of that experience is good or fills a need, some may become dependent to a degree. The greater the reinforcement potential from a psycho-pharmacologic standpoint, the more likely the drug use will be continued.

Methodology

The study adopted a correlational research design which utilized stratified random sampling technique to select twenty male and twenty female undergraduate students each from the College of Medicine of the University of Lagos. The sample for the study therefore consisted of 70 (35 male and 35 female) undergraduate students of the University of Lagos aged between 17 and 29years with mean age of 23.6 years.

A 20-item 4-point Likert Scale ranging from strongly agree, agree, disagree to strongly disagree designed by the researchers was used to elicit responses from the participants. The instrument was divided into three sections, A,B and C. Section A sought the bio data of the respondents. Section B contained items used to generate data on the drug abuse history of the respondents while Section C contained items that elicited information on the respondents’ deviant behaviours such as involvement in cult activities, truancy and absenteeism, high risk sexual behavior and sundry issues. Positive items were scored 4, 3, 2, and 1 for strongly agree, agree, disagree and strongly disagree respectively while the negative items were scored in reverse order.

Ethical considerations

Drug abuse is both a personal and a public issue, raising questions about individual rights and the boundaries of law, as well as about national sovereignty and international control. Ethical issues that arise under these headings may be related to certain broad ethical positions. The implications of adopting utilitarian assumptions may be contrasted with basing ethics on a theory of individual rights, closely related to a theory of human nature. The mortality and morbidity caused by alcohol, tobacco and illicit drug misuse represents a significant public health burden (Ezzati et al., 2002). A key part of the public health response is the collection of epidemiological and social science data to define at-risk populations to identify opportunities for intervention and to evaluate the effectiveness of policies in preventing or treating drug misuse and drug-related harm. Because of the sensitive nature of epidemiological research on illicit drug use a unique set of ethical challenges need to be explicitly addressed by the field. Although ethics guidelines have been proposed (Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences, 1991), scholarship on the ethics of epidemiology is scant, and consensus on core values not yet achieved (Coughlin, 2000). 1.1.

Results

After all findings, it is gathered that there are major factor influencing substance abuse which include PEER factor for example, them wanting to behave like their friends, pressure from their friends and gangs” The second major factor is SOCIETY I got the awareness from the advertisement “. The third factor is PARENTAL “Deprivation of parental care”; my parents are hostile”, or neglect from parents. The fourth factor is INDIVIDUAL such as “I use alcohol to drive away shyness”; “I smoke for excitement and pleasure”. The fifth factor is SCHOOL “the stress in the school “frustration from the lecturers”. Parental neglect can cause a child to succumb to peer pressure which will make the child get carried away from its point of focus

References

1. Ayatse, J. S. (2005) Cultism in Nigerian Educational Institution. Makurdi: Oracle Business Limited.
2. Conger, R. D. (1994). The family context of adolescent vulnerability and resilience to alcohol. Sociological Study of Children 6: 55-86.
3. David, S. Derald & Stanley, S. (1990). Understanding Abnormal Behaviour (Third Edition) Houghton Miffin Company Boston, Dallas Geneva, Illinois Palo Alto Princeton, New Jersey.
4. Ekejuba D. I. (1991). Drug Abuse in Nigeria and how to check it “paper presented to Medical students. Unpublished.
5. Hawkins, J. D. (1997) Exploring the effects of age of alcohol use initiation and psychosocial risk factors on subsequent alcohol misuse. Journal of studies on Alcohol 58(5) : 280-290.
6. Kamsy, D. C. & Wright, J. D. (1997) substance used among street children in Honduras”. In S. Eristein (ed.) Special issues on substance used among homeless Immigrants and Refugee populations: An international perspective 32(7&8) 806-827.
7. Mersy (2003) Drugs and Alcohol use among school aged Youth American Academic Pediatrics.
8. National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (1997). Drug Data Collection and Research. Lagos: Drug Demand Reduction unit on National Drug Law Enforcement Agency.
9. NSDUH (2010) Report of substance use among Black Adults. SAMHSA health Information Network.
10. ABDULAHI, Z. (2009). “Drug abuse among youths”, The Nigerian Society of Educational Psychologists, Jos: Nigeria. pp. 131-136.
11. ADESINA, S. (1975). The use of Indian hemp and drugs among secondary school students in Lagos, Lagos: University Press.
12. Adolescents Health Information Project (AHIP) (2001). Drug abuse, Unpublished Pamphlet, Kano: AHIP Centre.
13. AGUNLANA, G.G. (1999). “Family structure and prevalence of behaviour problems among Nigerian adolescents”, The Counsellor, 17(1) pp. 154-159.
14. BALOGUN, S.K. (2006). “Chronic intake of separate and combined alcohol and nicotine on body maintenance among youths”, Journal of Human Ecology, 19(1) 21-24.
15. Onifade, O.A (2006). Perception of Health Educators about the effects of food taboos and fallacies on the health of Nigerians. Journal of Educational Research and Development, 1 (3)109
16. Omotosho, M.Y. (1990).College and University text statistics N.P.S Educational publishers. Ibadan
17. Ryder, V. (1990).Cotemporary Living. U.S.A. Good Heart Willcox Company, INC
18. Sambo, S. (1991).A study of Drug Abuse Among the student in secondary schools in Kaduna Metropolis: Implication for Education and Guidance.A dissertation of Master Student in Educational Guidance and Counseling.Ahmadu Bello University,
19. Zaria.
20. Sambo, S. (2008). Understand Guidance and Counseling. Ahmadu Bello University press Ltd, Zaria.
21. Sanusi, M. (2004).Handy Tabs on Drug. Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria Press Ltd.
22. Scott, F.G. (2002). Behavioural Impact of phencyclidine and related Drugs on Infants. Ph.D Dissertation, California school of professional Psychology.
23. Tajudeen, O (2007).Psycho- Social Implication of Drug Abuse in Nigeria. Ibadan: Ola- Olu Publishing Company Ltd.
24. The World Book Encyclopedia (2002).5 Chicago. A Scott Fetzer Company.
25. The New Book of knowledge (1992). Vol.4 U.S.A. Grolier incorporated, Danbury Connecticut.
26. Ukadike, S.P. (2004).“The phenomenon of Drug Abuse in Nigeria” News line June 20. P.12 82
27. UNESCO, (1993).“Prevention of drug abuse through education and Information: Approaches and responsibility within the context of human development”. Paris.
28. United Nations (1989).United Nations and Drug abuse Control. United Nations, New York.
29. UnitedNations(1999).“Guidelines”DrugAbuserapidsituationAssessmentand Responses” ODCCPstudiesonDrugsandCrimeU.N.officeforDrugcontrol and Crime prevention, New York.
30. Wikipedia (2009) Retrieved on 10/8/2009 at file://c:/Docoments and settings/kole/my Documents/Game of Chance