A study to assess knowledge regarding substance abuse among higher secondary students in a selected school of Dehradun with a view to develop an information booklet regarding substance abuse A study to assess knowledge regarding substance abuse among higher secondary students in a selected school of Dehradun with a view to develop an information booklet regarding substance abuse

Abstract

Adolescence is a vulnerable period in a child’s physical and emotional development. The U.S. Surgeon General reports that growing teens are especially susceptible to the harmful effects of alcohol and drugs abuse on the brain. Some of the effects of alcohol and drug abuse may be temporary, but other damage may have a long-term impact on the way a teenager thinks, acts, feels and functions. The adolescent body is very resilient, but it’s not immune to the health risks of substance abuse. One of the biggest health risks of substance abuse in teens, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, is the risk of chemical dependence. When you drink or use drugs on a regular basis, your brain and body come to rely on these substances. In addition, drug and alcohol use can lead to other physical as well as mental disorder.

A descriptive study was conducted to assess the knowledge regarding substance abuse among higher secondary students. A total of 150 students were selected through convenient non -probability sampling technique. A self- structure questionnaire is used to obtain information from higher secondary students.

Result revealed that the total number of 150 subjects, majority of subjects has moderate knowledge i.e. 86.7%, 12% of the subjects has inadequate knowledge and 1.3% subjects has adequate knowledge regarding substance abuse. The mean score of knowledge regarding substance abuse is 16.86 with SD 3.55.  Majority of thesubjects were in the age group of 17-19 years i.e. 60% and 40% were in the age group of 14-16 years. In this study 58.7% subjects were male and 41.3% were female.The chai -square test depicts that only mother education is associated with knowledge score, else no demographic variable shows any significant association with their knowledge regarding substance abuse.  

The study conclude that Majority of the students has moderate knowledge regarding substance abuse and mother educational status is associate with the knowledge regarding substance abuse. The study suggests that there is a need to replicate the study with experimental research design on large number of subjects.