Family socio-economic status and substance abuse in the FCT Abuja: The nexus

Abstract

This study traced the background of substance abuse to pre-historic times and primitive era of Romans, Greek, and Egyptians abuse of Mushrooms, opiate, castor oil, alcohol etc. to the present realities of substance abuse in Nigeria which is said to have engulfed 14.3 million Nigerians in recent times. The Research questions were carefully crafted to capture socio-economic factors associated with adolescents in the Federal Capital Territory Abuja, Nigeria. The literature conceptualized the key variables of the study and theoretical reviews including Criminological theories and empirical analyses of previous studies. The study employed descriptive survey research design the population of the study was 3, 839,200 projected for FCT Abuja. Several sampling techniques were used to sample 1, 338 respondents covering the six Area Councils in the FCT, Abuja. SPSS Graph-pad, frequencies, percentage and Cumulative graphs was used to present the data from the field while ANOVA was used to test the hypotheses. Some of the major findings includes the fact that socio-economic and habitual dispositions of parent’s influence adolescents’ abuse of substances in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja. The following recommendations were advanced, Parents must ensure they exhibit good behavioral dispositions and practice before their wards, Wealthy parents should ensure genuine reasons for release of fund and monitor friends of your wards.