Efficacy of Therapeutic Role-Play on Bullying Perpetration among Secondary School Students in Lagos State

BACKGROUND: School bullying has become worrisome all over the world. There is no adequate information on bullying in schools in Nigeria, especially regarding the prevalence and treatment programme. Therefore, this descriptive study examined the efficacy of therapeutic role-plays on bullying perpetration among secondary school students in Lagos State. AIM: This descriptive study examined the efficacy of therapeutic role-plays on bullying perpetration among secondary school students in Lagos State. METHODS: The study adopted both survey and experimental designs. The study was in two phases and covered the two of the six educational districts of Lagos State. One thousand, four hundred and forty (1440) participants took part in the prevalence study, while one hundred and thirty-eight participated in the second phase, which was an experimental study. RESULTS: The finding revealed a significant effect of therapeutic role-play in treating bullying perpetrations among secondary school students (t = 72.822, df = 68; p<0.05). CONCLUSION: The study concluded that therapeutic role-play effectively reduces bullying perpetrations. Therefore, counsellors should adopt psychological interventions like therapeutic role-play to reduce bullying perpetrations in secondary schools.

Drug Use and High-risk Sexual Behavior among School-Going Adolescents in Nigeria

BACKGROUND: Sexual risk behavior and drug abuse among adolescents and youths remained perpetual topical issues of focus in most developmental programs related to developing countries, especially in Nigeria, where the school-going adolescents constitute more than half of the youths. The high level of teenage pregnancy and sexual violence such as abuses and other harmful trajectories including STIs and HIV is increasingly reported than the pre-2000s. AIM: This study focuses on underscoring the variation in risky sexual behavior among school-going users and non-users of drugs. It also analyzed the predisposing factors of drug use among school-going adolescents in Nigeria. METHODS: In combination with problem behavior theory, the research draws data (n = 11,799) from the 2012 National HIV and AIDS and Reproductive Health Survey (NARHS Plus II) collated by the Federal Ministry of Health in Nigeria with support from the Department for International Development and United States Agency for International Development, to underscore the self-reported sexual risk behavior among students who are users and non-users of drugs. RESULTS: The result revealed that 32.5% (male) and 33.4% (female) use drugs. More than half of the respondents reported that they have engaged in sexual intercourse, 27.3% (male) and 31.8% (female) have had ≥2 lifetime sexual partners. There is higher odds ratio (OR) of risky sexual behavior among students that have ever used drugs or taken alcohol (OR = 2.2, 95% CI [1.8–2.8]) for male and (OR = 2.1, 95% CI [0.83–2.03]) for female. CONCLUSION: The study concludes that continued exposure of school-going youths to drugs or alcohol may pose serious challenge of risky sexual behavior and also severe threat to initiatives on zero new HIV infections or zero new AIDS death in Nigeria. The authors recommend that campaign to discourage drug or alcohol use should be intensified and introduced to all schools.

Public College Students’ Perception of Underage Drinking In Nigeria: Analysis of Current Issues

BACKGROUND: Alcohol is the most widely used substance of abuse among youths in Nigerian. Currently, underage drinking has become a serious public health problem in most colleges and despite the health and safety risk, consumption of alcohol is rising. Having recourse to the public health objective on alcohol by the World Health organization, which is to reduce the health burden caused by the harmful use of alcohol, thereby saving lives and reducing injuries, this study explored the nature of alcohol use among college students, binge drinking and the consequences of alcohol consumption. Secondary school students are in a transition developmentally and this comes with its debilitating effects such as risky alcohol use which affects their health and educational attainment (Loukas, Cance, &amp; Batanova, 2016; Adekeye, 2012). METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study of 809 college students (ages 14&ndash;20 years) using the research survey method. For data collection, an adapted and validated version of the youth questionnaire on underage drinking was employed.&nbsp; RESULTS: Bivariate analysis found that more male students consume beer and spirits while wine was the reported preference of female students. Heavy episodic drinking (HED) was discovered among few male students while 50.2% of the sample had their first drink between ages 14 and 17. 81% of the sample had ever drank alcohol while more than half (65%) of the sample consume alcohol once in a month. Further analyses show prevalence of alcohol consumption, strategies to reducing alcohol use, reasons for underage drinking and effects of alcohol consumption. CONCLUSIONS: A majority of underage students supported increasing efforts to control underage drinking. The students reported that an effective approach to decreasing alcohol use could be public presentations by people who have been seriously hurt or impaired by alcohol use. This will be a veritable public health intervention.

Dataset on perception of public college students on underage drinking in Nigeria

Alcohol is the most widely used substance of abuse among youths in Nigeria. Underage drinking poses a serious public health problem in most colleges and despite the health and safety risk, consumption of alcohol is rising. Having recourse to the public health objective on alcohol by the World Health organization, which is to reduce the health burden caused by the harmful use of alcohol, thereby saving live and reducing injuries, this data article explored the nature of alcohol use among college students, binge drinking and the consequences of alcohol consumption. Secondary school students are in a transition developmentally and this comes with its debilitating effects such as risky alcohol use which affects their health and educational attainment [1], [2]. This data article consists of data obtained from 809 (ages 14-20 years) participants from selected schools in Ota, near Lagos State, Nigeria. For data collection, the youth questionnaire on underage drinking was employed. This data article presents information on participants' alcohol demographics. Analyses of the data can provide insights into heavy episodic drinking (HED), ever drinkers, prevalence of alcohol consumption, strategies to reducing alcohol use, reasons for underage drinking and effects of alcohol consumption. The data will be useful for public health interventions.