Prevalence of substance abuse among young school learners: A threat to social stability

Abstract

The study investigated prevalence of substance abuse in youth. Participants were 13 black male learners from a disadvantaged community in Limpopo Province in South Africa. The aim of this study was to explore the prevalence rate of substance abuse amongst a sample learners. The empirical investigation was undertaken by means of unstructured interviews. A voice recorder was used to record the interviews. Data was analysed thematically. Five themes were identified from the results, namely: age and grade for substance use, substances abused and setting, reasons for substance abuse, maintaining the substance abuse habit, and stopping substance. The findings of this study were revolving about the occurrence of substance abuse which was found to be very high in this study. The study also found that the substance abusers use substance abuse for different purposes, for instances to be part of the crowd. Recommendations were made to facilitate improving the knowledge regarding the spread, prevention and misconceptions about substance abuse.

Keywords: Substance abuse, illicit substances, peer pressure and qualitative research