DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2018.v06i10.004

Pages: 1911-1920

Global statistics show persistence of alcohol and drug abuse among the youth. In response to this, religious organizations, notably the Christian church have come up with programmes aimed at mitigating alcohol and drug abuse. However, the problem continues to persist despite the significant role religions play in the society. This study sought to investigate why alcohol and drug abuse continue to persist among the youth in the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) yet the church has mitigating programmes. The study was guided by Emile Durkheim’s Functionalism Theory and Sandra Coleman’s Incomplete Mourning and Addict Theory. The accessible population was church elders, Parish ministers, Presbytery moderators, the PCEA Youth Director and the youth members who included the youth abusing alcohol and drugs. Multistage cluster sampling technique was used to select three PCEA regions. Proportional sampling technique was used to get PCEA Presbytery moderators, church elders, Parish ministers and youth members who formed three clusters. Snowball sampling technique was used to get the youth who are abusing alcohol and drugs. Purposive sampling was used to select the Youth Director as a key informant due to his direct knowledge on alcohol and drug abuse mitigation activities in the PCEA.