| dc.description.abstract | The World Health Organization has observed that substance abuse is both an international
and national challenge that require urgent attention due to the alarming rate of involvement
of youth. Alcohol prevalence among secondary school students in Kakamega has reached
23.4%, a figure that is higher than the national average of 12.2%. Several psychosocial
issues combine to aggravate and sustain substance abuse in schools. Schools have put in
place preventive measures essential to curb substance abuse but little change has occurred.
This raises concern about the effectiveness of substance abuse preventive measures. The
study sought to investigate influence of psycho-social predisposing issues on effectiveness
of substance abuse preventive measures among secondary school students in Kakamega
County. Objectives of the study were to: establish the influence of co-curricular issues on
effectiveness of substance abuse preventive measures among students in Kakamega
County, evaluate the influence of peer issues on effectiveness of substance abuse preventive
measures among students; determine influence of family issues on effectiveness of
substance abuse preventive measures among students and examine influence of personality
issues on effectiveness of substance abuse preventive measures among secondary school
students. This study was informed by Social Cognitive Theory by Albert Bandura. It
adopted a mixed and correlational research design. Target population comprised of 12 Sub
County Directors of education, 530 guidance and counselling heads of department, 1,080
class teachers and 59,675 form three students drawn from 491secondary schools. It adopted
Convergent parallel mixed methodology. Multi-stage sampling and purposive sampling
techniques were adopted. Sample size consisted of 381 form three students, 108 class
teachers, 53 guidance and counselling heads of department and 12 sub-county directors of
education. Questionnaires, focus group discussion guide and interview guide instruments
were piloted. The validity of these instruments was ascertained through face, content and
construct validity. Construct validity was tested using factor analysis test, while reliability
of the instruments was tested using split half method and Cronbach’s alpha of reliability
coefficient index for data collection instruments was above 0.8 coefficient score both for
teachers and students. The average response rate was 68.3%. Hypothesis testing using
correlation and simple linear regression established that co-curricular, peer, family and
personality issues, had statistically significant influence on effectiveness of substance abuse
preventive measures among secondary students. Critically the study concluded that co
curricular, peer, family and personality predisposing issues have limiting influence on
effectiveness of substance abuse preventive measures. Further conclusion of the study is
that imitating behaviour, risk-taking behaviour, social pressure, weak family cohesion and
competitive games strongly predispose students to substance abuse while, nature of co
curricular, peer to peer talk, role modeling and one-on-one counselling are the most limited
preventive measures . The study recommended that the current substance abuse preventive
measures should be restructured in a way to minimise the influence of psychosocial
predisposing issues. Knowledge generated is critical in improvement and sustainability of
effectiveness of substance abuse preventive measures and therefore provide a baseline for
improvement of students’ behaviour with regard to substances | en_US |
