SUBSTANCE ABUSE AS STRESS COPING STRATEGY IN A DEPRESSED ECONOMY

Substance abuse as stress coping strategy in a depressed economy was investigated in this study.
A sample of 236 participants (198 females and 38 males) were selected from schools located in rural and urban areas. Tlie participants are all teachers in the selected schools.
Two instruments were used in this study namely: (i) a 20-item stressful life events questionnaire and (ii) a 15-item substances of abuse questionnaire. These two instruments were developed and validated by the researcher. The following hypotheses were tested:
1. There will be positive relationship between perceived stress and substance abuse.
2. More males than females will indulge in substance abuse when faced with stressful life events.
3. Married people will engage in more frequent subsfance abuse than their counterparts who are single.
4. Literate urban dwellers will indulge in m9re substance abuse than the literate rural dwellers.
5. Married people will experience more stress than their counterparts who are not married.
The Pearsori-r and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) statistics were used to analyze the data. Results of the Peason-r indicated that there was a significant positive relationship between felt stress and frequency of substance usage. The higher the individual's
reported level of felt stress, the higher the level of substance usage. (p < 0.05). r
Further analyses revealed that more males than females indulge in substance abuse as stress coping strategy (p < 0.05).
Married people reported higher frequency of substance use than their counterparts who are unmarried (p < 0.01).
The result also revealed that there was rm significant differenc;e between urban and rural dwellers on the frequency of drug use. The findings and the limitations of the study were discussed and some of their implications and areas of future research highlighted.