Psychosocial Factors Associated With Alcohol Use in School Going Children in a Public Primary School in Westlands Subcounty Nairobi

Abstract

NACADA’s filed report for 2017 indicates that alcohol consumption in the age gap of 10-19 years in Nairobi city is close to 13.7%. Other research has connected teen drinking to peer pressure, bad parenting, drug availability, lack of parental involvement, and lack of monitoring and therapy. The Westland region's children's studies did not explore psychosocial components like self-esteem or parenting traits like parental control. This study sought to examine the psychological elements of alcohol use among primary school children in West Lands Sub-County. Cross-sectional research was used in the study, which included 220 students aged 11 to 15 years from a public primary school in Nairobi County, Kenya, who were enrolled in the study. Parents and/or guardians were consulted to get their permission. The children gave verbal permission. For this study, researchers used a variety of questionnaires, including their own, a WHO global health survey on alcohol intake, the Rosenberg self-esteem scale, and the Parental Authority Questionnaire. In order to evaluate the data, SPSS version 22.0s was used. Narratives, tables, and figures were used to display the descriptive data. An inferential statistical approach was utilized to illustrate any statistically significant connections found in both univariate and multivariate analyses. Findings The study recruited 220 participants. The prevalence of alcohol use was found to be 12.7 %The Rosenberg self-esteem scale showed that majority of the respondents had low self-esteem scores of below, <15, the family setup, employment, were significantly associated with alcohol use at a, p= <0.023, p=<0.0027, respectively. The study concludes that Psychosocial factors family set-up and economic status of the home are perceived to influence alcohol use in pupils in public primary schools. In addition, some family setups are not usually concerned about their children thus, prompting the children to continuously engage in drinking behavior.