Knowledge and Risk- Perception of Substance Abuse among Public Secondary School Students in Ibadan North Local Government Area, Oyo State, Nigeria

Substance abuse is a public health concern worldwide and has adversely affected the educationalsystem. Students who use substances display behaviours that are negatively affected the quality ofteaching and learning. Many studies have been done on substance abuse among secondary schoolstudents but there is dearth of studies on knowledge and risk-perception of substance abuse amongpublic secondary school students The study assessed the knowledge, risk-perception and factorsinfluencing substance abuse among selected public secondary school students in Ibadan NorthLocal Government Area of Oyo State. A descriptive survey research method was used for the studywhile a multi-stage sampling technique involving three stages and a validated structuredquestionnaire with a reliability score of 0.85 was used to collect quantitative data from the selected439 students from the selected public secondary schools in Ibadan North Local Government Areaof Oyo State. Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) and multiple regression analysis wereused to test the mean, standard deviation and correlation among the variables in the study. Findingsrevealed that there was significant relationship between knowledge and factors influencingsubstance abuse (r = .577, n= 439, p < .05), risk-perception and factors influencing substance abuse(r = .621, n= 439, p < .05) and that the joint relationship of independent variables (knowledge,risk-perception) substance abuse was significant (F (2.436) = 362.158; R=.575, R2 = .330, Adj R2=.323; p < .05), the study concluded that knowledge and risk-perception were significantdeterminant of substance abuse among selected public secondary school students. It wasrecommended that government at all levels should develop and implement targeted interventionsthat will focus on enhancing students' risk perception and promoting positive behaviour