Drug abuse and antisocial behaviour among secondary school students in Calabar Metropolis, Cross River State, Nigeria: A Correlational Study.
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Abstract
While drug abuse and antisocial behaviour have each been documented among Nigerian secondary school students, and their conceptual link is widely assumed, few studies have formally tested the statistical relationship between the two constructs within a single, jointly measured sample, and none have done so specifically within Calabar Metropolis, Cross River State. This study tested the relationship between drug abuse and antisocial behaviour among 350 secondary school students in Calabar Municipality and Calabar South Local Government Areas, using a descriptive correlational design. Data were collected using a structured, anonymously administered questionnaire and analysed using Pearson product-moment correlation and simple linear regression. Results revealed a statistically significant, moderate-to-strong positive correlation between drug abuse and antisocial behaviour (r = 0.457, p < 0.001), with drug abuse significantly predicting antisocial behaviour (B = 0.467, t = 9.584, p < 0.001) and explaining approximately 20.9% of the variance in antisocial behaviour scores. This finding provides empirical evidence of the drug abuse–antisocial behaviour relationship within Calabar Metropolis, extending prior Cross River State evidence documented descriptively in other local government areas, and is interpreted through Hirschi's Social Control Theory, under which a weakened social bond elevates risk for both forms of deviance simultaneously. It is recommended that schools integrate drug-abuse prevention and antisocial behaviour management into a single, coordinated guidance and counselling programme rather than addressing the two problems in isolation.
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