Performance Of Peer Oriented Activities On Prevalence, Knowledge And Attitude Towards Substance Abuse Among Secondary School Students In Machakos County

ABSTRACT

Substance abuse is a problem to many people across the world. Programs and activities

have been put in place to fight drug and substance abuse in schools. The Ministry of

Education through the report of the presidential party in education and manpower training

for the next decade and beyond and the Commission of inquiry on the education system

of Kenya recommended that peer counseling services be established in all educational

institutions. Peer counseling was therefore integrated in guidance and counseling

programs as a remedy for students with different problems including drug and alcohol

abuse. In spite of these efforts, alcohol and drug abuse is still rampant among secondary

school students in Kenya. The study sought to determine the effects of peer oriented

activities on attitude, knowledge and prevalence of substance abuse among secondary

school students in Machakos County. The specific objectives were to determine the peer

oriented activities used to change attitude, provide knowledge and reduce prevalence of

Substance Abuse among secondary school students in Machakos County. It also

determined if there was a significant difference in prevalence, knowledge and attitude on

substance abuse between students in schools with peer oriented activities and those in

schools without such activities. The Theory of Planned Behavior by Ajzen formed the

theoretical basis of the study. The study used an Ex post Facto design to determine the

performance of peer oriented activities. The sample size was obtained from a population

of 17000 students and 31 public secondary schools in the sub county. Stratified,

systematic and simple random sampling were used to select 14 schools, 225 students, 14

teachers and 72 Peer counselors to participate in the study. Data was collected using three

sets of questionnaires, for students, peer counselors and guidance and counseling

teachers. Percentages, frequency Tables and bar graphs were used to present data. The

stated hypotheses were tested using the t-test. The study found out that small group

presentations were the main activities used by peer counselors in their practice. Other

activities like individual counseling, role modeling, play performance; befriending and

outreach programs were used by less than 20% of peer counselors. The study found out

that there was no significant difference in, knowledge, attitude and prevalence of

Substance abuse between students in schools with peer oriented activities and schools

without peer oriented activities at a significant level of 0.05. The p value for knowledge

was 0.9685, attitude 0.954 and prevalence 0.892. The study concludes that peer oriented

activities do not have effects on knowledge, attitude and prevalence of alcohol and drug

abuse in Machakos County. The study recommends that peer counselors need to be

trained on substance abuse prevention and that a curriculum should be developed to teach

students about alcohol and drug abuse.