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CHAPTER THREE

INFLUENCE OF DRUG AJlUSE ON SCHOOL ATTENDANCE ANDBULLYING AMONG STUDENTS OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN

EDUCATION DISTRICT III, LAGOS, NIGERIA.

Kienka Rita Okoriteritakienka@gmail.com

Osanrenren, N. & Nwadinigwe, I. P.Department of Education Foundations

Faculty of Education, University of Lagos, Akoka

Abstract

The study investigated the influence of drugs abuse on school attendance andbullying among senior secondary schools in Education District III, Lagos State,Nigeria. The study adopted Multistage sampling Technique. The Sampleemployed comprised one hundred students randomly selected from four PublicSenior Secondary two students from the four zones in the District. The researchinstrument was a four point Likert scale type questionnaire. Independence t - testand Chi - Square statistical tools were used to test the hypotheses formulated forthe study. The findings revealed that drug abuse significantly influence students'attendance to school; drug abused significantly influence bullying among studentsand there was gender difference in drug abuse among students in EducationDistrict III, Lagos State. Recommendations made include that Counsellors shouldcontinue to discourage students negative acts that can jeopardize or hinder theirlives and academic achievement; guidance counselling units should beestablished in schools for Counsellor to counsel students against abuse drugs andbullying offences; government should strictly monitor what the internet and thesocial media put in the air for the students among others.

Keywords: school Attendance, Drugs Abused, Bullying and Gender.

Introduction

Bullying behavior is a characteristic that is unwanted and aggressive amongschool aged children. It is an act that seeks to oppress someone who is perceivedas weaker. Bullying can make school feel unsafe, both physically andemotionally. It should be given quick attention because it is a threat to the general

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climate of the school. It is also a threat-on the students that desire to learn in a safeenvironment Fareo (2015).

Bullying is a problem that can possibly spread widely in an environment andwould affect a lot of students. In recent times, it is becoming a bigger crisis withvicious consequences. Bully is a terrifying experience that many students face ona daily basis and not just a child's play Aluede. (2006).

Absenteeism interrupts the learning process. Educational systems are founded onthe assumption that students will attend school. Reobuck, M. C. and Dennis, M.(2004) in their study of adolescent marijuana use and school attendanceconcluded that students who abuse drugs are more likely to drop out of schoolrather than stay enrolled in schools. While they stay in school, they would skipmore school days relative to non-marijuana users. Henry and Thornberry (2010)also opined that adolescents who are truants use substances more frequently thanthose who are not.

A drug is any substance with the exception of food and water which, when takeninto the body, alters, the functions of the body either physically and/orpsychologically. Some of these drugs are alcohol, caffeine, tobacco, cannabis,ecstasy, cocaine and heroin. The legality of these drugs vary in different places.

Amadi and Akpelu (2009) stated that the abuse and drug intake can affect thestate of the body and mind by either depressing or stimulating the central nervoussystem and can produce other biochemical harm to the body. The dependence oraddiction is psychologically characterized by the compulsion to take drugs on acontinuous or periodic basis in order to experience the mental effect it produces.

The Senior Secondary School age is very significant period of life. It can be thebest time for laying a positive foundation for life or a tumultuous time forstudents. In Nigeria, it is the age between 14 to 17years. It is the age of midadolescence when the student becomes very curious of various things happeningaround their surroundings. They desire to be independent and tend to resistinterference in their social life by parents or teachers (Osanrenren 2002).

The body function of an individual can be affected in addition to the addiction todrugs or alcohol. Ekpeyoung (2012) affirms that addiction to drugs is a statewhere a person's body may no longer function well without these substances. Hefurther explained that an addicted person may show a decline in academicperformance, frequently fail to attend classes, lose interest in school and displayweakened motor coordination, poor health and lack of interest for friendship.

Students could develop inferiority complexes when they lose friendship and thatcould become negative influence to others. Fareo (2011) described the Nigeria

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adolescent students, as people who see the drug user as one who is tough, boldand strong. She stated that youngsters have been known to use drugs at theinstance of peers, elders or siblings. Teenagers who are tough, bold and strongcould possibly be bullies.

Aggression seem to be common among secondary school students. Particularly,specific assault on other students in school. These aggressive behavior arepredictive of drug abuse Fauziah, Chong and Azmi (2012)

Bullies and those who are victims of bullying are in a higher risk of cigarettes,alcohol and cannabis use. 85% were involved in bullying dynamics in schoolsJorge et al (2017). Another study by Mota et al affirmed that there is a highprevalence for direct aggression, relational aggression, victimization, directaggression by students who consume drugs.

Anderberg and Dahiberg (2018) in their findings observed that that girls appear toconsistently have more difficult family and childhood environments than boys,and are more likely to have problems related to school, more serious substanceabuse problems, and more severe mental health problems. Criminality activity issignificantly higher among boys.

Drug abuse tend to be higher among male students, while depression resultingfrom drug abuse is more prevalent among the female students. The problems mayrange from physiological and physical changes. The female students also mayhave more anxiety when faced with academic challenges Obogo and Njoku(2017).

This study therefore investigated the Influence of drug abuse on school attendanceand bullying among secondary school students (in relation to attendance toschool, bullying and effects on gender) in Education District III, Lagos state.

Statement of the Problem

Bullying is an act that seeks to intimidate, harm or coerce another person that isperceived to be weaker. The behavior disrupts the peace of organisations,communities and institutions and could be worse in senior secondary schoolswhere the population of students are teenagers. It could disrupt the developmentalprocess of a student whose teenage years are a formation of what an adult lifecould be. In Education District III, some of the schools have been known to bevery prevalent of violent acts. Activities in the schools are often disrupted and thestudents have often taken advantage of such disruption to skip school. The wholesituation appears appalling because students not only bully students within theschools they attend, they form gangs who go out to other schools to bully others.

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Attendance to school could also be as a result of various factors, one of whichcould be fallout from drug abuse and proneness to violent behavior. There is alsoa significant degree of lack of attendance to school among teenage children. Forlack of no definite reasons the same group of students randomly stay away fromschool and whenever they attend classes, would always bully their classmates.The problem is that students who stays away from school may not perform wellacademically and the consequent result of such behaviour lies in the communitywhich remains continuously academically backward and the fear of producingmany deviants in the society.

Bullying and irregular attendance among the senior secondary school two studentshave become very problemlematic in schools in the District because bullying maycause various forms of trauma to those bullied and the behavior may aggravate toa point where the bullies would commit more violent acts that may disrupt normalfunctioning of the school environment and society at large. Irregular attendancegenerally may lead to poor performance in schools and that would consequentlyaffect the educational development of the State.

Drug abuse has also become a re-occurring problem among students in theDistrict. They are sold everywhere and are becoming cheap to afford. This studytherefore sought to research on the influence of drug abuse on school attendanceand bullying among students of secondary school in Education District III.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of drug abuse onattendance to school and bullying among students in Education District III, LagosState. The specific objectives of this study were to:

1. determine the influence of drugs on school attendance of students inEducation District III, Lagos State

2. determine the influence of drugs on bullying among students in EducationDistrict III, Lagos State

3. determine the gender difference on drug abuse among students inEducation District III, Lagos State.

Research Questions

1. Will drug abuse influence students attendance to school in EducationDistrict III, Lagos state.

2. Will drug abuse influence bullying among students in Education DistrictIII, Lagos State

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3. What is the influence of gender difference in drug abuse among studentsin Education District III, Lagos State.

Research Hypothesis

1. There is no significant influence on attendance to school among studentswho abuse drugs in Education District 3, Lagos State

2. There is no significant influence of bullying among students who abusedrugs in Education District 3, Lagos State

3. There is no significant gender difference among students who abuse drugsin Education District 3, Lagos State.

Methodology

Research Design

The research design for this study is the descriptive Survey. Descriptive Surveyaccording to Ilogu(2005) is used to collect data that would enable the researcherto describe systematically the characteristics features about the given population.The design is deemed to be appropriate because questionnaire would be used tocollect data from the sample with the view of generalizing on the entirepopulation.

Target Population of the Study

The target population for this study included all the Public Senior SecondarySchool Two students in Education District 3, Lagos State.

Sampling Procedures

The researcher used Multi- stage technique to select the sample of the study.

The sample comprised of one hundred (l00) randomly selected students from fourPublic secondary schools in the four zones of the District. Twenty-five (25)students comprising of thirteen female and twelve males were selected from eachof the four schools studied. Their age ranged between 14 - 20 years.

Instrumentation

The instrument was a researcher constructed questionnaire measuring schoolattendance and bullying on drug abuse. The questionnaire had two parts, A and B.Part A measured respondent's bio data namely, age, gender and class. Part Bcomprised of two sections, A and B. Section A comprised five assertivestatements measuring level of drug abuse. Section B comprised five assertive

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statements measuring bullying. Whereas section C comprised five assertivestatements measuring class attendance. Each statement had a four point likert -type scale as measurement mode.

Results and Discussion

The results and discussion for this study are presented as follows

Hypothesis 1: There is no significant difference between students' schoo IAttendance and the Drugs Abused in Education District III, in Lagos State.

Table 1: t-test analysis of influence of drug abuse on attendance among students

Drug abuse n so t cal

High 62 10.68 8.42

2.13*

Low 38 13.81 6.19

*Significant at 0.05, df= 98; critical t = 2.00Table one shows that a calculated t- value of 2.13 resulted as the influence of drugabuse of school attendance among students. This calculated t-value of 2.13 issignificant since it is higher than the critical t-value of 2.00 given 98 degree offreedom at 0.05 level of significance. This means that students with low drugabuse significantly have higher propensity to class attendance than those that havehigh drug abuse. Consequently, the null hypothesis was rejected.

This findings is in line with Ekpeyoung (2012) who affirmed that drug abuse is astate where a person's body may no longer function well without thesesubstances. He further explained that an addicted person may show a decline inacademic performance, frequently fail to attend classes, lose interest in school anddisplay weakened motor coordination.

Hypothesis 2: There is no significant difference between students' Bullying andDrug abuse in Education District III, Lagos State.

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Table 2: Independent t-test analysis of drug abuse on bullying among students.

Drug Abuse n x SD t-eal

High 62 14.16 5.64

2.40*

Low 38 11.23 6.05

* Significant at 0.05; df= 98; critical t-2.00

Table 2 shows that a calculated t-value of 2.40 resulted as the influence of drugabuse on bullying among students. This calculated t-value of 2.40 is significantsince it is higher than the critical t-value of 2.00 given 98 degree of freedom at0.05 level of significance. This means that students who have high drug abusesignificantly engage in bullying more than those who are low on drugs abuse,hence the null hypothesis is retained.

There is no significant difference between students' Bullying and Drugs Abusedin Education District III, Lagos State was rejected. It therefore means that thisstatement was supported by Fareo (2011) who described the Nigerian adolescentsas people who see the drug user as one who is tough, bold and strong. She opinedthat aggression seem to be common among secondary school studentsparticularly, specific assault on other students in the school.

In collaboration to this statement, Fauziah, Chong and Azmi (2012) asserted thatAggressive behavior are predictive of drug abused. Jorge (2017) opined thatbullies and those who are victims of bullying are in a higher risk of cigarettes,alcohol and cannabis use. He emphasized that 85% were involved in bullyingdynamics in school.

Hypothesis 3: There is no significant difference Gender and the students who areDrugs Abused in Education District III, in Lagos State.

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Table 3: Independent t-test on influence of gender on drug abuse among students

Gender n -x SD t-eal

Male 41 14.64 7.88

1.01*Female 59 12.92 9.16

* Not significant at 0.05; df= 98; critical t=2.00Table 3 shows that a calculated t-value of 1.01 resulted as the influence of genderon drug abuse among students. This calculated t-value of 1.01 is not significantsince it is less than the critical t-value of 2.00 given 98 degrees of freedom at 0.05level of significance. This means that the tendency towards drug abuse is notmajorly influenced by gender. Consequently, the null hypothesis is retained.

This finding was in line with Anderberg and Dahiberg (2018), in their findingsobserved that girls appeared consistently have difficult family and childhoodenvironment than the boys and are more likely to have problems related to school,and more severe mental health problem. But Obogo and Njoku claimed that Drugabused tend to be higher among male students, while aggression resulting fromdrug abuse is more predictive among female students. The female students mayhave more anxiety when faced with academic challenges.

Conclusion

It is concluded that there was significant difference between school Attendanceand Drugs Abused, in Education District 111, in Lagos State; there wassignificant difference between students' Bullying and Drugs Abused in EducationDistrict 111, in Lagos State and there was a significant difference between genderand students who are into drugs abused in Education District III, in Lagos State.

Recommendations

1. Counsellors should continue to encourage students to eschew negative actsthat can jeopardize or generate into negative habits that would affect theirlives and academic achievement.

2. Guidance counselling units should be established in the schools for regularcounselling against abuse drugs and bullying behaviour.

3. Continuous sensitization against the negative effects of drug abuse andhow it would affect their attendance to school should continue in allschools

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4. The government should strictly monitor what the internet and the socialmedia are relating to the children and censor so programme ..

5. The government should come up with adequate media awareness of thedangers of drugs abuse.

6. School Counsellors should always look out for absentees and bullies inschool for counselling.

7. Schools counsellors should map out signs to identify drug abuserstrategies to assist them to stop the habit.

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