Prevalence and Psychosocial Risk Factors of Substance Abuse: The Case of Dire Dawa University Students

Abstract This study aims to investigate the prevalence and psychosocial risk factors of substance use among Dire Dawa University students. In Ethiopia, substance abuse is a prevailing problem in developing countries. The study was employed a cross-sectional survey design, and the total sample size was 388. The study employed a multistage sampling technique and the students were selected randomly from the population. The total sample size is 386. This study was used questionnaires. The research was employed descriptive and inferential statistics to analyze the current study using SPSS. The lifetime prevalence of substance abuse, specifically, alcohol, chat, tobacco, cannabis, and cocaine was 58.3%, 52.3%, 28.9%, 24.5%, and 14.5% respectively. Peer influence, mental health problems, academic factors, easy drug availability, trouble relationship with parents, and lack of regulation significantly predict substance abuse at R [0.68)=, p<0.05). Specifically, peer influence, drug availability and, mental problems were the major risk factors for abusing substances. The psychosocial risk factors of substance abuse were multiple pathways involved in the abuse of the substance. Thus, risk factors like psychological, social, and environmental factors mutually influence each other in causing substance abuse. The finding revealed that the level of substances abuse among DDU students across their socio-demographic characteristics; there is a significant mean difference (t = 3.1, p<0.05) in the level of substance abuse between males and females.