Information use, social skills and drug abuse among senior secondary school students in Ogun East Senatorial District, Ogun State, Nigeria

Drug abuse is the arbitrary use of psycho-active substances for non-medical reasons. Adolescents who abuse drugs may have problems with logical thinking, memory and attention span deficit. Deaths arising from illicit drugs usage continue to rise and adolescents are the most vulnerable. While previous studies have examined prevalence and adolescents‟ attitude to drug abuse, very few have considered the variables of this study. Therefore, this study examined the influence of information use, social skills and drug abuse among Senior Secondary School Students in Ogun East Senatorial District, Ogun State, Nigeria. Survey research design was used for the study. The population comprised 49,823 Senior Secondary School Students in Ogun East Senatorial District. A sample size of 399 was obtained using Taro Yamane‟s formula. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select the participants. A structured and validated questionnaire was used to collect data. Cronbach‟s alpha reliability coefficients for the constructs ranged from 0.75 to 0.92. A response rate of 100% was obtained. Data analysis was done using frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, simple and multiple regression analyses. Findings revealed that information use and social skills had a joint significant influence on drug abuse among Senior Secondary School Students in Ogun East Senatorial District, Ogun State, Nigeria (F (3, 393) = 9.127, p < 0.05, Adj. R 2 = 0.658). Information use had a significant negative influence on respondents‟ drug abuse (β = -0.179, p = 0.000. R 2 = 0.679; F (1,395) = 12.979, p < 0.05). Social skills also had a significant negative influence on respondents‟ drug abuse (F (4, 392) = 7.402, p < 0.05, Adj.R2 = 0.716). Relatively, decision making skills (β= -0.504, (t = -5.063), p<0.05), stress management skills (β = -0.670, (t =-7.759), p<0.05), communication skills (β = -0.037, (t =-0.589), p>0.05) and conflict management skills (β= -0.220, (t = -3.158), p<0.05) had significant negative influences on drug abuse among the respondents. The study concluded that information use and social skills determine secondary school students‟ engagement in drug abuse. Ogun State Ministry of Education should ensure that courses on social skills are incorporated into secondary school curriculum as this may go a long way in equipping adolescents with appropriate competencies that could enable them to mitigate drug abuse.