Impact of drug abuse on academic performance: the cases of Pottuvil Divisional Secretariat Division

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify the impact of drug abuse on academic performance of the students. The study was conducted in Pottuvil Divisional Secretary Division of Ampara district, Eastern province of Sri Lanka. This research is adopted on quantitative methodology and the researcher used questionnaires to collect data. The date was collected through simple random sampling method. In this study, the researcher finds the factors inducing the drug usage such are availability of drugs, curiosity, tourism, media, peer influence and drugs used by parents. According to this study, the findings show that availability of drugs, tourism, peer influence and drugs used by parents are the main factors for using drugs among the students which ultimately impact the students’ academic performance. This study furnishes the evidence to government authorities, school teachers, parents and social workers to focus on the factors for encourage the drug usage among school children in Pottuvil.