Abstract

This study was on effect of drug abuse on academic performance of adolescents in Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike. Three research questions and one hypothesis were formulated to guide the study. The design for the study was a survey, the area of study was Ikwuano LGA of Abia State. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 50 respondents who were addicted to drugs. The instrument for data collection was a well-structured questionnaire tagged "Effect of Drug Abuse on Adolescents' Academic Performance Questionnaire" (EDAAPQ). The instrument had three sections. The instrument is a modified liker! scale. Face and content validity of the instrument was established by two experts in the field of Psychology and Counseling and one expert in Measurement and Evaluation. The reliability of "EDAAPQ" was established using Cronbach Alpha and it yielded a coefficient of 0.72, 0.78 and 0.76 for section 2,3 and 4 respectively. Method of data analysis includes mean, standard deviation and I-test statistics. The result showed that adolescents were to a high extent aware of the effects of drug abuse, adolescence agreed that peer pressure is a factor that exposed them to the use of drug and that the drug use to a high extent has negative effect on their academic performance, the hypothesis stated revealed that there was no significance difference in the mean rating of male and female students on the effect of drug abuse on their academic: performances. The major recommendation is that practicing counselors should organize quarterly sensitization programs in tertiary Institutions on the need to desist from use of drugs and crbate outreach centers in schools to rehabilitate those neck dip into the act, that seems to come out of drug abuse.