Waithima, Charity2024-10-162024-10-162016-05Waithima, C. (2016). Effectiveness of Life Skills Enhancement Training on Substance Use Reduction and Implications on Academic Performance: A Study among Students from Selected Secondary Schools in Kieni, Nyeri. Daystar University, School of Applied Human Scienceshttps://repository.daystar.ac.ke/handle/123456789/5479DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Clinical PsychologyThe use of psychoactive substances has remained a critical problem among adolescents in Kenya. The strategies that have been put in place by the government and other stakeholders seem not to have been effective in empowering adolescents to say “no” to substance use. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of life skills enhancement training on substance use reduction and its implications on academic performance among secondary school students in Kieni, Nyeri. The study was a quasiexperimental quantitative study. Life skills’ training was employed for six months. Purposive and simple random sampling techniques were used to select participants (n=1038) at baseline who were grouped into the experimental (n=468) and control (n=570) groups. A self-administered questionnaire was employed to collect data on socio-demographic characteristics while the Global School-based Student Health Survey tool was used to get data on substance use. Binary logistic regression in analysis examined the association between individual, environmental, parental factors and adolescent substance use and academic performance. Adjusted Odds Ratios (AOR) and 95% Confidence Interval (CI) brought out the estimated strength of association. Efficacy of the intervention was assessed after six months. Substance use and academic performance within and between groups at endline with reference to baseline were compared using Pearson’s chi-square and t tests. The overall current prevalence of substance use at baseline was 48.7%. The study found that the main predictors of substance use were gender, poor academic performance, sexual abuse, seeing significant others use substances, no knowledge on substance use dangers and easy access to khat. Academic performance was found to be both a precursor and a consequence of substance use among the participants. In addition, there was a significant difference in reduction of substance use in the experimental group after intervention. It emerged that a student enrolled in this group was 3.86 times more likely to stop using psychoactive substances than a student in the control group. The intervention administered was also found to cushion students against poor academic performance. Life skills when enhanced were therefore found to be effective in empowering adolescents to develop safe and healthy behavior with regard to substance use. It is therefore recommended that education stakeholders in Kenya adapt the life skills curriculum towards substance use reduction. Since the life skills enhancement training model was successful in Kieni, there is need to expand it countrywide and within the East Africa region.enLife Skills Enhancement TrainingLife Skills Enhancement TrainingThesis