Too Young to Be Stressed

Drug Abuse in India: Grounding Research in Ecological Risk and Resilience Theory

“…Individual factors that have been identified as risk factors in research on drug use and abuse in India include the following: age (Chaturvedi, Phukan, & Mahantra, ), the male gender (Charles, Bewley‐Tayla, & Neidpath, ; Chaturvedi et al., ; Juyal et al., ), although drug use among females is increasing in India (Charles et al., ), genetic vulnerability (Prasant, Phani, Surendra, & Basu, ), mental illness (Bagdi, ), and minority status (Subramanian, Smith, & Subramanyam, ). Protective factors include education (Chaturvedi et al., ; Mookherjee & Chowdhury, ), knowledge and information about the effects of drugs (Samson, Singh, & Barua, ; Sharma, Kapoor, & Verma, ), and willingness to seek treatment (Joy, Mehta, Pal, Ray, & Yadav, ; Kumar, ; Samson et al., ).…”

“…Indian research on microsystemic factors has pointed to the following as risk factors: intrapersonal stress (Bhattacharya, ; Patalano, ), family psychiatric history (Bagdi, ), parental drug use (Mookherjee & Chowdhury, ), family disorganization (Mookherjee & Chowdhury, ), unrealistic parental expectations about education and work (Bagdi, ), living away from family as an adolescent or young adult (Juyal et al., ), and peer influence (Chetna, Nandini, Rutna, & Ingle, ; Kermode, Longleg, Singh, Bowen, & Rintoul, ; Mookherjee & Chowdhury, ; Naskar, Roy, & Battacharya, ; Seth, Kotwal, & Ganguly, ). Little research has been carried out on microsystemic resilience factors.…”

“…Research on exosystemic factors in India has resulted in the identification of the following risk factors: the presence of drug trafficking (Datta et al., ), proximity to illegal cultivation of drugs (Charles et al., ), the introduction of drugs through tourism (Ibid), accessibility/availability of drugs (Chetna et al., ; Naskar et al., ), community or neighborhood stress (Bagdi, ; Suchday, Suman, Ewart, & Friedberg, ), and unemployment (Lone, Wani, Ashai, Paray, & Abbas, ). Protective factors include accessibility/availability of programs aimed at prevention (D'Costa et al., ; Kumar, Mudaliar, & Daniels, ; Reddy et al., 2002) or treatment (Bhattacharya, ; Dhand, ; Chandrasekaran, Krupp, Ruja, & Madhivanan, ; Jacob, Kurvilla, & Vijayakumar, ; Jena, Raj, & Yadav, ; Mohan & Sharma, ; Schensul et al, ; Seth et al., ; Waraich, Chavan, & Lok, ), and educational opportunities (Bagdi, ). Region of the country (Chaturvedi et al., ), location (urban vs. rural; Juyal et al., ), ethnic group (Chaturvedi & Mahantra, ; Chaturvedi et al., ), and religion (Charles et al., ) are all complex in their effects on drug use and related problems.…”

“…Macrosystemic risk factors that have been identified in research on India include the following: Bollywood and Western media influences (Rampal, ), cultural values about childrearing that place great emphasis on educational and occupational success (Bagdi, ), migration (Seth et al., ), and cultural acceptance of drug use (Chaturvedi et al., ; Ganguly et al., ; Gureje, Mavreas, Vazquez‐Barquero, & Janca, ). Protective factors that have been identified include the following: the availability of information about drug use/abuse and secondary effects in education or the media (Seth et al., ) and policies and legal restrictions (Charles et al., ) that discourage drug use.…”