Risk Factors leading to Adolescent Substance Use

Abstract

Introduction: Substance abuse is a patterned use of a substance in which the user consumes the substance in amounts or with methods which are harmful to themselves or others. Adolescence is a transitional stage of young group of people between the ages of 10 to 19 years. The main objective of this study was to assess the risk factors leading to substance use among adolescent students of selected school of Kaski district.

Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional research design was conducted among 390 adolescent students studying in selected schools of Kaski. Structured self-administrationquestionnaire was used to collect data. Simple random sampling technique was used to select the sample. Collected data was checked immediately for its completeness after collecting from the participants. Data was edited, coded and entered into statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 16. Data was analyzed by using both univariate, bivariateand multivariate analysis techniques.

Results: The result showed that substance abuse was prevalent among 22.30% of the respondents. There was significant association of substance abuse with age, grade, demographic variables and prevalence of substance use, likewise there was statistically significant association between the family related, peer related and individual risk factors and prevalence of substance use.

Conclusion: Based on the finding it is concluded that the prevalence of substance use is high among adolescents, early screening of risk factors and prompt intervention to prevent use of substance is essential to protect the youth of a nation.