Student Perceptions on Factors and Effect of Drug and Substance Abuse

: A Case of United States International University - Africa

Abstract

The main objective of the study was to explore students’ perceptions on drug and substance abuse at USIU-AFRICA. Specifically, the study sought to investigate factors influencing drug and substance abuse and find out the effect of drug and substance abuse on university students. The study adopted mixed method approach. Multistage sampling was used to get representation from all the five schools within the university. In each school, 30% of the programmes was computed and rounded off to the nearest whole number. Simple random sampling was used to pick the number of courses in progrmmes. Snowball sampling technique was used to identify the drug and substance users who were targeted for focus group discussions. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics while qualitative data was analyzed using common theming method. The study established that major factors influencing drug and substance abuse family background and upbringing. In terms of influence of drugs and substances, the results indicated that substance abuse impair student judgement, affect quality of sleep, and lower the performance of students both in class and outside class. The study recommended a turn round strategy by the university in dealing with drug and substance abuse to improve students’ performance, their retention and completion rates to graduate with their respective degrees in their areas of specialization.