Role of Family and Peers in Initiation and Continuation of Substance Use

Abstract

Aims:To assess the impact of family and peers on both initiation and continuation of substance use among eighth, ninth and tenth grade adolescent high school students.Design:Population based cross-sectional study.Setting:Two high schools of West Bengal, India.Participants:416 students in class VIII, IX, and X in two schools.Interventions:None.Measurements:Substance use: initiation, sources, reasons for continuation. Then proportions and chi-square test was used for statistical analysis.Materials and Methods:This was a population based cross sectional study conducted among 416 students from class VII, IX and X in two high schools( urban and rural) of West Bengal, India selected by Multistage random sampling. A self administered anonymous pretested close ended questionnaire was used with the main outcome measures of initiation, sources, reasons for continuation of substance use based on WHO study team questionnaire.Results:Prevalence of substance use was found to be higher among the urban students (15.1%) than their rural counterparts (10.7%). The proportion of users was higher in the higher grades as compared to the lower grades. Among urban as well as rural students, 16 years and above were significantly more likely than their counterparts aged 15 years and below to report lifetime use. The mean age of initiation ranged from 12.6 to 13.9 years. Family members and friends were found to have a considerable influence not only on initiation but also important sources for money as well as the substance. Easy availability in the neighborhood was also an important correlate to continuation of substances.Conclusions:Family environment as well as peer groups has an important bearing on initiation and continuation of substance use. Experimentation of substance use motivated by peer groups is common among adolescents and starts early in life. Hence, it is necessary to provide health promotion programs directed toward students and their families which encourage attitude shaping among school children towards self-confidence and adequacy.

Using the Confidence Interval-Based Estimation of Relevance Approach to Identify Determinants of Cannabis Use among High School Students in the Netherlands

“…Thinking that the majority of peers use cannabis was also associated with a stronger intention to use cannabis. This finding supports previous research that showed that the perception of the amount to which peers use cannabis increases the frequency of one's own actual cannabis use and intention to use cannabis (D'Amico & McCarthy, 2006;Nolan et al, 2008;Tsering & Pal, 2009). The scores on the middle of the scale indicated that there are subgroups who think that the majority of their peers use cannabis.…”

“…Previous studies already showed that adolescents tend to overestimate the extent to which peers use cannabis (Kilmer et al, 2015;Van Laar & Ooyen-Houbem 2016). The most plausible explanation for the relation between the descriptive norm and cannabis use is that adolescents tend to conform to the behaviour of the majority (Nolan et al, 2008;Tsering & Pal, 2009). Correcting the norm, or denormalisation, among subgroups that overestimate the extent to which peers use cannabis could prevent adolescents from conforming their behaviour to a misperception about the amount of cannabis used by their peers.…”

Factors Contributing to the Onset and Continuation of Drug Abuse among Secondary School Students in Mombasa County, Kenya

“…These results therefore indicated a strong family influence to drug use and abuse among secondary school students. These findings corroborate the findings of Tsering and Pal (2009) who found out that a drug usage was associated with one or more family members especially fathers using drugs. Similarly, Coombs (2002) showed that abstainers' parents had firmer standards regarding curfew, television, schoolwork, use of alcohol and other drugs.…”

A cross section study on tobacco consumption practice in school going adolescent male of Jamnagar city, Gujarat, India

“…11 In the study of Tsering it was noted that influence of peer groups (urban= 61.5% and rural= 69.3%) had been seen to be the most important source of initiating substance use but the likelihood of family member using any substance also influenced initiation of smoking by young children. 15 Livaudais have reported that having friends who were smokers at baseline was associated with eventually becoming a smoker among Latino adolescents in the United States. 16.…”