Academic Related Variables and Attitudes toward Substance Abuse among Secondary School Adolescents in Barbados

Abstract

This study investigated the relationships between some academic related variables (interest in school, psychological resilience, study habit) and attitudes toward substance abuse among 220 (M=15.1, SD=1.10) secondary school adolescents in Barbados. Results revealed that interest in school, psychological resilience and study habits negatively correlated with adolescents&rsquo; attitudes toward substance abuse. The academic related variables also jointly contributed 45% (R Square=0.445) of the variance being accounted for in attitudes to substance abuse and this was found to be statistically significant (F(3,216)=57.63, p<.0005). Additionally, it was found that interest in school was the best predictor of attitudes to substance abuse and that psychological resilience and study habit were other significant predictors. These results were discussed in the light of the importance of these academic variables preventing adolescents&rsquo; substance abuse

Emotional Intelligence and Gender as Predictors of Academic Achievement among Some University Students in Barbados

“…The possible reason for gender disparity in emotional intelligence (attending to emotion) may be attributed to biological and genetic reasons; that certain areas of the brain dedicated to processing emotions could be larger in women than in men as reported by (Baron-Cohen, 2003 andGur et.al 2002) and that that there is a difference in cerebral activity based on sex (Jaušovec & Jaušovec, 2005). The finding of this study on gender disparity in academic achievement also supported the existing literature that there were significant gender differences in academic achievement in favour of the girls in Barbados and St Vincent (Cumberbatch 1993;Fayombo 2010;Kutnick 2000); among a sample of 900 students who graduated in 2004 from the Mona Campus of The University of the West Indies, (Cheeseman, Simpson & Wint 2006) and among undergraduate students in a large public university in Turkey (Dayıoğlu, and Türüt-Aşik 2004). The finding of this study however contradicted that of Gang and Guiang (2000) who reported that female students lag well behind male students among college students as well as other maths-related and traditionally male-dominated subjects such as computer science (Betz & Hackett 1983;Post-Hammer & Smith, 1985).…”

“…Evidence suggests that there are gender differences and similarities in academic achievement at different levels of education around the globe. For instance, in the Caribbean, it was found at the secondary school level that there was a significant gender difference in academic achievement in favour of the girls in Barbados and St Vincent (Cumberbatch 1993;Fayombo 2010& Kutnick 2000. Similarly, it was also reported that among a sample of 900 students who graduated in the year 2004 from the Mona Campus of The University of the West Indies, females were more likely than males to receive honours degrees in the university (Cheeseman, Simpson & Wint 2006).…”

Cross Institutional Study of the Causes of Absenteeism among University Students in Barbados and Nigeria

“…These findings on gender disparity in reasons for absenteeism from lectures among the UWI and UI students also correspond to gender differences in measures of interest in school in terms of participation in academic activities and performance thereby generating results that are quite consistent with the extant literature in this field that girls work harder and attend classes more frequently than boys; boys disregard authority, and that there are differences in students' attitudes to work, maturity and effective learning strategies (Baker & Jones 1993;Fayombo 2010;Wainer & Steinberg, 1992). Thus, females excel in their studies and outperformed their male counterparts as found among undergraduate students in a large public university in Turkey, (Dayıoğlu, and Türüt-Aşik 2004) because of school related or academic reasons like interesting, captivating, motivating lectures facilitated by the females' preferred choice of subjects like language arts and music which are inherently interesting as found in a representative sample of students from United States, Taiwan and Japan (Evans, Schweingruber, & Stevenson 2002).…”

“…However, in the Caribbean, in the The University of the West Indies, especially in Barbados, literature abounds on improving the quality of teaching and learning, maximizing students' learning and knowledge creation through the open campus learning system, integration of information communication technology into the institution's programme of activities through the use of videos in the classroom and through blackboard and e-learning systems (Longsworth 2009;Watson & Barbado 2008); the significance of the library in supporting teaching, learning and research (Helenese-Paul 2008) and supposed differences in learning styles (Burskey 2004), yet there is little focus on the issue of student absenteeism from lectures in spite of its frequency, its consequences and serious complaints by faculty on students' poor attendance at lectures during personal discussions and departmental meetings until recently that literature identifies the implications of absenteeism from lectures among undergraduate students in Barbados (Fayombo 2010) and evidences of students' absenteeism from elementary and primary schools in Jamaica (Knight & Rapley, 2007).…”

Comparative Analysis of Study Habits Between Males and Females

“…A study was conducted by (Fayombo, 2010) to investigate the differences in interest in schooling, study habits and attitude towards substance abuse between secondary school male and female students. 210 secondary school students between the age-range of 14-18 years were randomly selected from 4 secondary schools in Barbados as participants of the study.…”