Legesse, Mengistu (PhD)Assefa, Henok2018-06-192023-11-042018-06-192023-11-042015-06http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/1772This study was conducted in April 2007 E.C in Ayer Tena Secondary School. The objective of this study was to explore the prevalence of substance abuse, identify the reasons why students abuse drugs, to see the highly abused drugs and the perceived effect of drug abuse among the students. Respondents were randomly selected for the study. A total of 118 respondents (74 male and 44 female) were selected to fill in a close ended questionnaire. From the total respondents, only 114 (96.6%) completed the questionnaire properly and the non response rate was 4 (3.4%). The analysis of results were based on the 114 respondents. The results were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and inferenial statistics.Pilot study and Pretesting of the questionnaire was conducted among 30 students that were not included in the actual study. Anonymous selfadministered structured questionnaire initially prepared in English version and later translated to Amharic version was conducted in order to obtain the required information from the respondents. The finding in this study indicated the overall prevalence of substance abuse among Ayer Tena secondary school students was 24.6%. The most commonly abused substances as the finding shows, 5.90% smoke cannabis, 4.20% chew khat, and 0.80% drinks Alcohol, and 0.80% smoke cigarettes. Alongside, the study indicated, most of the students abuse more than one substance at the same time and Khat and Cannabis were the highly abused substance by the students. There was no statistically significant association between gender and substance use. The finding shows male students exposed to the problem than that of the female students.A statistically significant association was found in socio demographic variables such as family drug use and age. The minimum age range of the students resides between 15 - 16 yrs of age which constitutes 86.18% of the participants. The result discloses family drug use have an effect on drug use of the students. Beside family influence, peer pressure has been found playing a profound influence for drug using behavior. Drug use behavior is more common with age mates than with family members. As the result demonstrates, the student’s major source of money to purchase substances was their parents. The main consequence of drug use reported by the students was encountering physical and emotional problems. This implies that drug use has negatively contributed to student’s education and relationships. Based on the findings of the study, suggestions were made and social work implications and interventions wereforwardedenSocial WorkThesis