Vera Iyobosa EDOKPAY

This purpose of this study was to find out the influence of substance abuse on the performance of student athletes in the University of Benin. Four research questions were raised. The descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population for this study consists of 150 respondents across 8 different sports from student-athletes in the University of Benin. A total of eighty (80) respondents from few Sports were selected through simple random sampling technique. The validity of the study was ascertained by the researcher’s supervisor and two other experts in the Department of Human Kinetics and Sports Science all from the University of Benin. Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient was used to establish the reliability and a reliability index of 0.74 was obtained indicating that the instrument was reliable. The demographic data was analyzed using descriptive statistics involving frequency counts and percentages while mean and standard deviation was used to analyze the research questions. The findings of the study revealed that substance abuse messes up how well student-athletes can play and leads to less focus and lower confidence, which can affect how well athletes perform in sports. It was concluded that substance abuse will influence the performance of student athletes in the University of Benin. It was therefore recommended that comprehensive educational initiatives should be implemented to inform student-athletes about the health risks and performance-related consequences of substance abuse