Alcohol Intake among Secondary School Students in Ndhiwa Division, Ndhiwa Sub County, Kenya

Globally, alcohol intake among secondary school students has been recognized as a serious problem that needs quick government attention. For example in Netherlands, underage binge drinking rose from 700 teenage drinking cases in hospitals in 2009 to 900 cases in 2010 and the same problem has also been noted in Thailand, Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya where drinking among adolescents is seen as a psychological and social problem .This is despite the fact that many cultures in globe prohibit alcohol taking among school going youths. In African traditional society, alcohol was a privilege only for the male elders and there was no social problem associated with it. Data is a bound to the realization that alcohol intake among school going students is high in the Kenya. This trend has caused concern to the Kenyan governments, parents and other stakeholders. The government has played a key role by forming NACADA a body which is mandated in fighting drug and alcohol abuse, they have reduced drinking hours and have also sponsored negative advertisements on drugs in order to reduce alcohol abuse but all in vain. Despite all the intervention by the government Ndhiwa police station still register high rate of offenders on drug related offences and the same problem is experienced by education department where most unrest and indiscipline originate from alcohol intake among the students. This study therefore examined alcohol intake among secondary school students in Ndhiwa division, Ndhiwa Sub County. Specifically, the study sought to find out the. prevalence of alcohol intake among secondary students in Ndhiwa Division,Ndhiwa Sub county in Homabay County and to establish social factors leading to alcohol intake among secondary school students in Ndhiwa Division, Ndhiwa subcounty in Homabay County. The study was guided by social learning theory which can be traced back to the work of Akers and Sellers in 2004.The conceptualization of social learning theory embodies within its four fundamental premises that include differential association, definitions, differential reinforcement and imitation. The study used descriptive survey research design. The study population was 2454 students in the nine secondary schools in Ndhiwa division. Sample size of 338 students was calculated using Kothari's 2005 formula while 9 principals and 5 chiefs were used as key informants and identified by saturated sampling. The research used stratified and systematic random sampling techniques to get the respondents. Quantitative data were collected by use of questionnaires. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics through the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 to derive percentages and averages and the findings were presented using tables. Qualitative data were collected through key informant interview and were analyzed thematically and presented in textual description and verbatim. The findings indicate that 57.4% of students had taken alcohol in the last one year and there is high level of alcohol intake noticed among male students. The research revealed that having parents, friends and role models who drink alcohol are strong predictors of alcohol use among the students. This study thus concludes that amidst other social factors availability of alcohol also plays key role in alcohol intake among secondary school students. The study recommends that there is need for effective societal structures to be properly integrated to help reduce the extent of alcohol intake among secondary school students in the society.