Teacher's and pupils' views on school-based alcohol abuse preventive strategies in selected schools of Lusaka district, Zambia.

This qualitative study explores the teachers and pupils views on school based alcohol abuse preventive strategies in selected schools in Lusaka District of Zambia. The study objectives were: to establish factors influencing pupils to abuse alcohol, to ascertain the sensitisation on alcohol abuse in schools, to explore the teachers’ and pupils’ views on school-based alcohol abuse preventative strategies in selected schools. The study involved a total of 30 participants and used descriptive research design to collect data. Purposive sampling procedure was used to select teachers, pupils, head teachers, parents and mental officers. Focus Group Discussion was used among pupils as a ‘friendship group’. Interview guides were used to collect data from the teachers, pupils, and head teachers and mental health programme education officers. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data, major themes were drawn from interviews with participants for easy descriptions. From the findings, it is evident that pupils abused alcohol in school premises. The findings revealed that peer pressure, stress, ignorance, curiosity, lack of sensitisation on the dangers of alcohol abuse were the main factors influencing the pupils to abuse alcohol in schools. The findings showed that sensitisation and awareness were rarely conducted to prevent pupils from abusing alcohol. The findings of this study provide strong support for the importance of calibrating the methodological approach with the underlying aims of the study. It was recommended that school based strategies should be more interactive. Plays, games, life skills training should be revamped to positively contribute to behaviour change. Teachers, head teachers and parents should be involved in the prevention of alcohol abuse and should undergo a short training in alcohol prevention.
Key words: Alcohol, abuse, school based preventive strategies, peers, substance.