Family Influences on Substance Abuse Tendency among Secondary School Students in Yakurr Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract

Substance abuse among young people is a complex and a problematic social phenomenon which is growing steadily worldwide and family influences on it have been hypothesized from diverse research and theoretical perspectives. This paper focused on family influences on drug abuse tendency among secondary school students in Yakurr Local Government Area (LGA) of Cross River State, Nigeria. A questionnaire with a reliability coefficient range of 0.78 and 0.85 was used to collect data from 250 respondents while the t-test statistics was utilized for data analysis. The findings revealed that family type and family size were significant predictors of drug abuse tendency among secondary school students. These results provided support for families to monitor and control their children in order to curtail their involvement in inappropriate drug use; the encouragement of monogamous family type (which is closely knitted and replete with love and affection) over and above polygamous family type while a smaller family size which is easier to manage should be preferred to a large one.