Abstract

This study investigated the prevalence of substance use and associated factors among a cohort of 350 adolescents (Male=103: Female=247) randomly selected from Command Secondary Schools in Southeastern Nigeria. Four self-report questionnaires were utilised to collect data, while Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Multiple regression were used for data analysis. The hypotheses were tested at.05 probability level. The result showed a significant difference in substance use between male and female respondents (Crit-t 1.65, Cal.t 2.67, df=349, P<0.05). The outcomes suggest that the male students have greater (x¯=6.33) tendency to use substance than their female counterpart ( x¯=1.62). There was also a significant negative relationship between the three independent variables and substance use. The combination of the three independent variables accounted for 83.1% (adjusted R2=0.831) of the total variance in the prediction of substance use among the respondents. It was , therefore, recommended that counselling psychologists and other stakeholders in the school setting should use peer tutoring and teacher mentoring to foster school connectedness among the students, while seminars and workshops should be organised to boost students' capacity to accept their body image.