PERCEIVED IMPACT OF SUBSTANCE ABUSE ON MENTAL HEALTH AMONG UNDERGRADUATES IN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN ANAMBRA STATE

Abstract

This study investigated the perceived impact of substance abuse on mental health 
among undergraduate students in public universities in Anambra State. Five research 
questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a descriptive 
survey research design. The population comprised of 75,358 undergraduate students 
in public universities in Anambra State. A sample of 400 undergraduate students 
determined using the Taro Yamane formula was selected using multistage sampling 
techniques. A researcher-developed questionnaire titled "the perceived Impact of 
Substance Abuse on Mental Health Questionnaire (IPSAMHQ)", was validated by 
three experts in Health Promotion and Public Health Education and Educational 
Foundation (Measurement and Evaluation), while its reliability was established using 
the Kuder-Richardson Formula 20 (KR-20), which yielded reliability coefficient of 
0.86 and Cronbach's Alpha with an overall coefficient of 0.83, indicating that the 
instrument was reliable for the study. Data was collected through direct administration 
to respondents by the researcher and three research assistants and was analyzed using 
SPSS version 27.0. Frequency counts, percentages, mean and standard deviation 
answered the research questions, while independent samples t-test was used to test 
the hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. Alcohol (88%), energy drinks (83%), 
pain relievers (77%), tobacco (71%), caffeine (67%) and cannabis (66%) were 
perceived by undergraduates as commonly used substances. The overall frequency of 
use was rare (cluster mean = 1.31). The study also found that substance abuse was 
perceived to have impact on students' mental health. Furthermore, the findings 
indicated there was no statistically significant difference in the perceptions of male 
and female undergraduate students, as well as undergraduate students across different 
academic levels, regarding the perceived impact of substance abuse on mental health. 
The study recommended that University health education programmes should provide 
regular, education on the consequences of alcohol, tobacco, cannabis etc and also 
provide counselling and referral for students experiencing psychological distress or 
problematic substance use.