Psychosocial Factors and Drugs Abuse Among Female Undergraduate in Tertiary Institutions in the Federal Capital Territory Nigeria

Abstract

Substance use among undergraduates in Nigerian tertiary institutions remains a significant public health and educational problem, with reported prevalence ranging from 10.1% to 71.9% across campuses despite generally high awareness of its dangers, and with peer processes consistently identified as central to use and normalisation. This study examined the influence of peer influence, self-esteem, academic stress, and family background on substance use among female undergraduates in tertiary institutions in the Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria, with implications for guidance and counselling. A descriptive research design was adopted, and the population comprised all female undergraduates aged 18 to 35, married and unmarried, across tertiary institutions in the FCT. Using Cochran's (1977) formula for infinite population, a sample size of 384 was obtained, inflated by 20% to 460 as suggested by Israel (2013) to account for nonresponse and straight-lining. A multistage sampling technique was employed: five tertiary institutions, University of Abuja, National Open University, Baze University, Nile University, and Veritas University, were purposively selected from the 42 tertiary institutions in the FCT, a quota of 92 respondents was allocated to each institution, and snowball sampling was used to locate respondents within each location until the quota was met. Data were collected via a structured questionnaire administered through the Drop-Off/Pick-Up (DOPU) method over two weeks, with the assistance of three research assistants, and analysed descriptively using SPSS version 27. The findings revealed that peer influence recorded the highest endorsement among the four factors, with an average of 62.6% of respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing that peer influence contributes to substance use, followed by self-esteem at 57.0%, academic stress at 51.1%, while family background recorded the lowest endorsement at 39.8%, with disagreement and neutral responses collectively outweighing agreement on every item. The study concluded that peer influence and self-esteem are the more pressing psychosocial factors associated with substance use among female undergraduates in the FCT, while academic stress and family background, though contributory, played comparatively smaller roles in this sample. It recommends that counselling units in tertiary institutions prioritise peer-focused interventions and self-esteembuilding components, while maintaining stress-management and family-inclusive support for the smaller proportion of students affected by those factors.