Assessment of Causes, Prevalence and Consequences of Alcohol and Drug Abuse among Mekelle University, CSSL 2^nd Year Students

Shimelis Keno Tulu^1, and Wosen Keskis¹

¹Department of Psychology, Mekelle University, Mekelle, Ethiopia

Cite this paper:
Shimelis Keno Tulu and Wosen Keskis. Assessment of Causes, Prevalence and Consequences of Alcohol and Drug Abuse among Mekelle University, CSSL 2^nd Year Students. American Journal of Applied Psychology. 2015; 3(3):47-56. doi: 10.12691/ajap-3-3-1

Abstract

The findings of different study show that, alcohol and drug abuse among university students is increasing from time to time and becoming the major problem that many governments are facing currently. The case is not different for Ethiopian university and college [1]. Therefore, the focus of this study is to investigate the major causes, prevalence and consequences of alcohol and drug abuse (specifically, drinking alcohol, smoking cigarette, and chewing Khat) among Mekelle University, College of Social Sciences and Languages (CSSL), 2^nd year students. Out of 690 total students found in 10 departments, Standardized screening test called (Drug Abuse Screening test (DAST) was administered to a total of 329 purposefully selected students to screen out alcohol and drug abusers. As per the result of the score, 200(29%) of the total students or [60% of those who are purposefully selected for screening test] were found to be alcohol and drug abusers. Hence, 200 participants met the criterion to be the participants of the study. Among the selected 200 total participants, 170(85%) were male and 30(15%) were female. All 200 participants were filled 3 questionnaires namely; questionnaire to assess causes of drug abuse, Inventory of Drug Use Consequences (InDUC-2L) and Questionnaire to assess the prevalence of Drug Abuse. Results show that, the major causes of alcohol and drug abuse are peer pressure, psychological factors, academic factors and social factors. The findings also show that, the prevalence of alcohol and drug abuse is high among Mekelle University College of Social Sciences and Languages (CSSL) 2^nd year students. According to the findings, the major consequences of alcohol and drug abuse are behavioral, academic, physical, economic, health, psychological and social. Therefore, it is awfully recommendable that further comprehensively studies are conducted regarding the causes, prevalence and consequences of drinking alcohol, chewing Khat and smoking cigarette among university students. Moreover, appropriate prevention, intervention and treatment/psychotherapy mechanisms are also expected to be formulated to at least reduce rapidly increasing and the far reaching problems of alcohol and drug abuse among University and College students in Ethiopia.

Keywords:
alcohol and drug abuse smoking cigarette chewing Khat

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