Factors Predisposing to Drug and Substance Abuse among the Youth in Gachie, Kiambu County, Kenya
Abstract
Drugs and substance abuse is the use of substances in a maladaptive manner leading to significant health status impairment, distress or a failure to meet personal's responsibilities. It manifests in the form of recurrent and repeated use of substances resulting into adverse health and psycho-social consequences especially among the youth. However factors that predispose to this condition have not been determined. The study determined factors that predispose to drugs and substance abuse among the youths in Gachie, Kiambu County, Kenya. Descriptive cross-sectional research design was carried out in the month of March 2017. The study population included residents of Gachie, aged between 19-35 years and willing to participate in the study. Desired sample size respondents was determined to be 73 using Fischer formula. Simple random sampling procedure was used to select the respondents. Structured questionnaires were used for data collection and data will be analyzed by SPSS 22 statistical package. Results were presented in form of percentages, tables and graphs. Results indicated that peer pressure, drugs availability and unemployment contributed to drug and substance abuse by the youth in Gachie Kiambu County. The drugs that were mostly abused were alcohol (62.5%), bhang (23.6%) and tobacco (11.1%). Peer pressure thrived at 87.5% among the youth who abused drugs with 50% of those convinced to consume drugs succumbing to the pressure. Youth acknowledged their engagement on drug and substance abuse to unemployment.
Keywords: Peer pressure, Unemployment, Predisposing factors, Drug and substance abuse and Youth
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