Knowledge and Awareness Regarding the Harmful Effects of Substance Abuse among Adolescents

Abstract

Substance abuse is a rapidly growing worldwide problem. The use and abuse of substances cause a considerable threat to the health of the individuals, social and economic status of families, societies, and nations. Almost every country in the world is affected by substance abuse. Adolescents are considered as a future pillar of the Nation and are responsible for its future productivity. Adolescents are those belonging to the age between 13–19 years which constitute over 23% of the population in India. Method: A research design used for this study was a descriptive survey approach. The samples were selected by using the purposive non-random sampling technique. The sample size was 100 adolescents aged 16 to 19 years. Data was collected by using a structured knowledge questionnaire schedule through multiple choice questions and a structured awareness checklist. The data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics by mean, standard deviation, and chi-square. Results: In the present study, out of 100 samples, the majority of the distribution of scores of knowledge of adolescents regarding harmful effects of substance abuse reveals that 48% of adolescents have low knowledge, 37% of adolescents have medium knowledge, and 15% have high knowledge. The mean knowledge score regarding the harmful effect of substance abuse among adolescents was 12.27, and the standard deviation of knowledge scores of adolescents was 3.68 whereas the mean awareness score of the adolescents was 22.32, and the standard deviation of awareness scores of adolescents was 2.34. There was no significant association between the demographic variables such as age, gender, education, residential areas, type of family, family’s monthly income, father’s education, mother’s education, father’s occupation, mother’s occupation, and sources of information with knowledge and awareness regarding harmful effects of substance abuse among adolescents.