Knowledge and Attitude Regarding Substance Abuse among Adolescents in a Selected High School, Kottayam, Kerala

Abstract

The present study was conducted to assess the knowledge and attitude regarding substance abuse among adolescents in a selected high school, Kottayam, Kerala. The research design of the study was non-experimental descriptive survey design. The setting of the study was Mar Makil Public School Kaipuzha, which comes under Kottayam district, Kerala, India and the school was providing education upto X th standard. Population was adolescents between the age group of 13–18 years. Sample size was 35 and samples were selected from VIIIth , IXth and X th standard using convenient sampling method. The instrument used for the present study was a knowledge questionnaire and a Three-Point Likert Rating scale. The structured knowledge questionnaire was prepared by the investigator, which consisted of 25 items. The rating scale for assessing the attitude of adolescents towards substance abuse has three options. ‘Agree’ carried 3 marks, ‘Partially agree’ carried 2 marks and ‘Disagree’ carried 1 mark. For a negative statement, the scoring system was reversed. The analysis of the data was done by using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results showed that the overall mean knowledge of adolescents regarding substance abuse was 15.7 (52.33%) and majority 31 (88.57%) of adolescents had average knowledge regarding substance abuse. The overall mean attitude of adolescents regarding substance abuse was 27.25 (82.85%) and majority 29 (82.8%) of adolescents had moderate positive attitude towards substance abuse. There was a correlation between knowledge and attitude of adolescents regarding substance abuse. The present study has implications in the field of nursing practice, nursing administration, nursing education and nursing research.