Swedish high-school pupils' attitudes towards drugs in relation to drug usage, impulsiveness and other risk factors

Background. Illicit drug use influences people’s lives and elicits unwanted behaviour. Current research shows that there is an increase in young people’s drug use in Sweden. The aim was to investigate Swedish high-school pupils’ attitudes, impulsiveness and gender differences linked to drug use. Risk and protective factors relative to drug use were also a focus of interest.

Method. High school pupils (n = 146) aged 17–21 years, responded to the Adolescent Health and Development Inventory, Barratt Impulsiveness Scale and Knowledge, and the Attitudes and Beliefs. Direct logistic, multiple regression analyses, and Multivariate Analysis of Variance were used to analyze the data.

Results. Positive Attitudes towards drugs were predicted by risk factors (odds ratio = 37.31) and gender (odds ratio = .32). Risk factors (odds ratio = 46.89), positive attitudes towards drugs (odds ratio = 4.63), and impulsiveness (odds ratio = 1.11) predicted drug usage. Risk factors dimensions Family, Friends and Individual Characteristic were positively related to impulsiveness among drug users. Moreover, although boys reported using drugs to a greater extent, girls expressed more positive attitude towards drugs and even reported more impulsiveness than boys.

Conclusion. This study reinforces the notion that research ought to focus on gender differences relative to pro-drug attitudes along with testing for differences in the predictors of girls’ and boys’ delinquency and impulsiveness. Positive attitudes towards drugs among adolescents seem to be part of a vicious circle including risk factors, such as friendly drug environments (e.g., friends who use drugs) and unsupportive family environments, individual characteristics, and impulsiveness.

Tobacco and alcohol consumption among adolescents

This study analyzes the consumption of alcohol and tobacco among high-school adolescents in the district of Porto, Portugal. The results reveal the following: the majority of respondents do not smoke; smoking starts earlier in the case of girls; smoking increases with age; peer pressure is an important factor influencing smoking; about half of adolescents consume alcohol; boys drink more than girls; the number of those who consume alcohol increases with age; distilled drinks are the choice for both genders; 44.1% of the respondents became intoxicated at least once and the majority has no intention to quit drinking.

Alcohol use from ages 9 to 16: A cohort-sequential latent growth model

This study examined alcohol use from pre-adolescence to mid-adolescence and determined the influence of hypothesized covariates on changes in alcohol use rates during this developmental period. The sample comprised 405 randomly recruited youth from three age cohorts (9, 11, and 13 years), assessed annually for 4 years. Youth were 48.4% female, 50.4% African-American, and 49.6% White. A cohort-sequential latent growth model was employed which modeled alcohol use (use versus non-use) from ages 9 to 16 years, accounting for demographic variables of gender, race, parent marital status, and family economic status. Covariates of alcohol use included parent alcohol use, family alcohol problems, family cohesion, parent supervision, peer deviance, peer alcohol use, and peer encouragement of alcohol use. Results showed that proportions of alcohol users increased steadily from ages 9 to 16 years. Significant covariates were found on the intercept and slope. Being female and higher levels of parent alcohol use were associated with higher initial rates of alcohol use, whereas greater friends' encouragement of alcohol use was related to lower initial rates of alcohol use (intercept). Alternatively, more peer deviance and friends' encouragement of alcohol use was related to an increase in alcohol use rates from ages 9 to 16 years (slope), as was being White and from a single-parent family.