PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR SUBSTANCE ABUSEAS PERCEIVED BYSTUDENTS OF TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN KWARA STATE

Abstract

This study was aimed at surveying the psychological factors responsible for substance abuse aa perceived by students of tertiary institutions in Kwara State. Descriptive survey method was adopted. The target population comprised all students oftertiary institutions in Kwara State. The researcher purposively selected three Universities in Kwara State. They are University of Ilorin, Alikimah University and kwara state University. Simple random sampling technique was used in selecting 150 respondents from each of the Universities.The instrument used for this study was a questionnaire tagged ‘Psychological factors Responsible for Substance Abuse Questionnaire’’ (PFRSAQ). The instrument has two sections. Section A involved the demographic data. Section B contained 15 items on psychological factors. All hypotheses were tested at 0.05 alpha level of significance. Results revealed that there was no significant difference in the psychological factors responsible for substance abuse as perceived by students of tertiary institutions in Kwara State on the basis of gender and institution type, however a significant difference was found on the basis of religion. It was therefore recommended that efforts should be made by the Universities to establish standard Guidance and Counselling units in order to assist students to handle their psychological problems.