Some parameters of the use of alcohol by Israeli youth and its relationship to their involvement with cannabis and tobacco

This is the third report of an epidemiological study dealing with drugs, cigarettes, and now alcohol, amongst secondary school students in Israel. In the present report we describe general trends of alcohol use, draw socioeconomic profiles of alcohol drinkers, and investigate the relationship with cannabis use and cigarette smoking. Drinking patterns of the research population were studied during the 30 days prior to the administration of a questionnaire in order to devise a scale of their quantity of drinking in relation to a time sequence. Measures were also constructed for the drinking patterns of the family and friends of the research population. One of the overall conclusions is that a higher alcohol consumption is indicated amongst youngsters with a profile of delinquency, involvement with youth activities, personal problems and low parental control.

Differential patterns of drug involvement among Israeli youth

The present study tries to link some demographic, social, psycholoogical and attitudinal variables of drug abuse. The findings were centred around the readiness of secondary school youth in Israel to be involved in drugs and their active searching for drug involvement. A dependent variable based on five indices of drug involvement was constructed. It was then related to parental control, peer involvement in drugs, sex differentiation and membership in youth movements. A bi-modal high involvement curve was found, the first mode consisting of youth of low socio-economic strata who are drop-outs, who associate with outside peer groups as an alternative to their shaky and diffused families and lack of involvement in school life. The other mode consists of youth with a higher socio-economic background who are involved with drugs due to their desire for new hedonistic and emotional experiences. Their openness to experiment with drugs is a corollary to their involvement within a peer group which condones and legitimizes narcotics as well as any experiences which irrespective of their source, provide "a good high". There is a sub-group within this group which would be involved with drugs as a partial escape from personal problems.