| dc.description.abstract | Alcohol and drugs pose special problems for students. According to Mutumi (2013), the average student who has on~ drink a day earns a GPA at only a C-level, and grades plummet with higher consumption. The purpose of this study was to explore the interventions of alcohol and drug abuse among the students in secondary schools in Nyeri Central Sub-County. The area of study was Nyeri Central Sub-County, Nyeri County. Economic activities in the area of study are both subsistence and small-scale cash crop farming. The study objectives were based on the impact of parents' interventions in drug and alcohol abuse, which guidance and counselling services were offered and the effectiveness of NACADA in dealing with drug and alcohol abuse among secondary school students in Nyeri Central Sub-County. The study adopted the survey design. The study population was drawn from all 18 public secondary schools with a population of 6860 students, 5760 parents, 18 principals,250 teachers and 36 counsellors in the year 2016. The sample size for the parents, teachers and students was 100 in each case. For the selection of student counsellors and principals, the researcher selected 30% of each group. The stratified random sampling procedure was adopted to select the sample from the target population. Each stratum represented a category of respondents. Focus Group Discussions were employed to collect data about the impact of parents' interventions in drug and alcohol abuse, guidance and counselling services offered by teacher counsellors and the effectiveness of NACADA in dealing with drug and alcohol abuse among secondary school students. A pilot survey was conducted in order to ascertain and detect any ambiguities, questions that could not be easily understood or poorly constructed and even those that were irrelevant. The test-retest method was used whereby the same instrument was administered to the same test group in a span of two weeks. The reliability coefficient was 0.79. After seeking a research permit from NACOSTI, the researcher proceeded to the sampled secondary schools. The researcher liaised with the principals in the sampled secondary schools and booked appointments as to when to visit the secondary schools and administer the instruments. The researcher personally distributed the questionnaires and picked them after two weeks completion. On part of the Focus Group Discussions, the researcher randomly selected from the school offices 17 parents from four schools and sixteen from 2 schools totalling to 100. Data were coded and entered into the computer and analyzed with the help of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) v23. The study employed descriptive and inferential statistics in analyzing the information. The study found that parents influence drug and alcohol abuse in the 3:rea of study and individual guidance and counselling techniques were scarcely practiced in the area while NACADA hardly visited the area. The researcher recommended that parents in the area of study should be role models to their children to discourage drug and alcohol abuse, counsellor teachers should be encouraged to extensively use . individual counselling which is more effective than group counselling. | en_US |
