This study investigated the illicit drug use and its effect on the emotional behaviour of senior secondary students in public schools in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. The study was designed to ascertain the relationship between illicit drug use and truancy, study habit and school violence in senior secondary schools in Uyo metropolis, a capital city of AkwaIbom State. Three research questions and three null hypotheses were formulated for the study. The study adopted the correlational research design. The population used for the study was 10,520 senior secondary school students from 13 public secondary schools in Uyo metropolis. A stratified random sampling technique was used to select 1,300 senior secondary school students to form the sample. The researchers developed instrument titled “Illicit Drug Use and Emotional Behaviour of Senior Secondary Students in Public Schools (IDEBSSSPS) to collect data for the study. The instrument was validated by three research experts in the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. The reliability index of 0.82 was determined using Crombach’s Alpha. Mean was used to answer the research questions while simple regression was used to test the null hypotheses at .05 alpha level. The findings revealed that illicit drug use has a serious influence on the emotional behaviour of senior secondary students in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. It was recommended among others that public enlightenment campaigns should be organized at the secondary school level to educate students on the dangers of drug use.
Keywords: Akwa Ibom State, Emotional Behaviour, Illicit Drug Use, Secondary Schools
