Peer group influence, alcohol consumption, and secondary school students’ attitudes towards school

Abstract

The present study was intended to find out the relationship between peer group influence, alcohol consumption, and students’ attitudes towards school. Specific objectives were to establish the relationship between peer group influence and secondary school students’ attitudes towards school, secondary, to establish the relationship between peer group influence and alcohol consumption and to find out the relationship between alcohol consumption and secondary school students’ attitudes towards school. The study adopted a correlational research design. Questionnaires to measure peer group influence, alcohol consumption, and students’ attitudes towards school were administered to 200 senior four students from four government-aided secondary schools in Mbarara District and they were selected using simple random sampling technique. Spearman’s rank order correlation was used to test the three hypotheses. The findings of the study indicated that: -There was no significant relationship between peer group influence and students’ attitudes towards school. -There was no significant relationship between peer group influence and alcohol consumption. -There was a positive significant relationship between alcohol consumption and students’ attitudes towards school.

It was recommended that school administrators should sensitize the students about the effects of peer influence and alcohol consumption. Other main stakeholders in schools like the Ministry of Education should take an active part in designing policies to govern schools so as to control the behaviour of students. Local communities around schools together with the parents who have children in those schools should be involved and be sensitized to cooperate with the administration in ensuring that students observe school rules. And lastly, through the department of guidance and counseling, the Ministry of Education could design counseling programs focusing on alcohol to be adopted by all schools.