Perception on the effects of substance abuse in a comprehensive university: a case of gender

Abstract

Abstract: Substance abuse has been identified to interfere with the students’ physical, cognitive and affective development. The main aim of this study was to determine the perception of gender on the effects of substance abuse on their physical, cognitive and affective development. Methodology: The research philosophy adopted was positivism and the approach was deductive. A self-administered questionnaire containing items developed from literature review was administered to 199 built environment and civil engineering students at a South African university. The data was analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21. Cronbach alpha was used to achieve the reliability for internal consistency of the measured constructs i.e. physical, cognitive and affective development. Item correlation identified the correlation of the measures of physical, cognitive and affective development. T-test was further conducted to test gender perception on the effects of substance abuse on the physical, cognitive and affective development. Findings: The measures of physical, cognitive and affective development had a strong relationship and were reliable measures. Furthermore, the results suggest that there was no statistical significant difference on the perception of the effect of substance abuse on cognitive development as informed by male and female students. However, there was a significant difference on their perception on substance abuse on physical and affective development. Limitation(s): The respondents were from one comprehensive university, therefore the findings cannot be generalized for all the tertiary institutions in South Africa..