DRIVE FOR MONEY AND SUBSTANCE USE AS CORRELATES OF PSYCHOSOCIAL BEHAVIOUR AMONG IN-SCHOOL ADOLESCENTS IN ILISAN-REMO, IKENE LOCAL GOVT. OGUN STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Every society that will be good and viable should be able to have youths or young ones that are 
positively minded, more focused with their academic and career, and have the ability to channel their 
thinking positively to make themselves and their society better, and this could only be achieved when the 
youths and adolescents are psychologically balanced, and have positive psychological and social 
behavior. Psychosocial behavior is the interplay between individual psychological and social influences, 
unraveling the complexities of our actions and reactions. While psychosocial behavior can be both 
positive (resilience, optimism, social interaction or engagement, emotional stability, assertiveness) and 
negative (drug abuse, cyber fraud, stealing, kidnapping, rapping, cultism). An adolescent with positive 
psychosocial behavior will make their environment lively, convenient and safe for living, they tends to 
have stronger and more supportive relationship with people and peers but when it is otherwise, the 
adolescents are vulnerable, they may struggle with fitting in or be prone to bullying, which can affect their 
thinking pattern and their social experience They may be influenced by the things around them and this 
will dictate to them to go for what they want rather than what they need, which makes such adolescents to 
be emotionally unstable, tempted to engage in lots of risky behaviors, thereby making them a bad 
influence to their peers and a “time bomb” to the society at large.