Original articleSocial skills and attitudes associated with substance use behaviors among young adolescents
Section snippets
Study design
The study protocol was approved by the Internal Review Board at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Verbal consent was obtained from each student. Written informed consent was not obtained from a parent or guardian because this study was part of an evaluation of a new curriculum in the middle schools. An anonymous questionnaire was administered to 2646 seventh grade students in classrooms by investigators before implementing the Life Skills Training curriculum in 1999. All enrolled
Descriptive statistics
Forty-one percent were students of color and 50.6%, female. The majority ranged in age from 12 to 13 years, and 69.9% lived in two-parent families. The frequency of substance use in the previous 30 days (ranging from 1 = ”never“ to 7 = ”more than once a day“) indicated that 14.1% used cigarettes at least once, 18.5% used alcohol at least once, 5% smoked marijuana at least once, 6.5% used inhalants at least once, and 0.6% used cocaine or other ”hard drugs“ at least once. For anticipated use in
Discussion
The 1998 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse found that for youth aged 12–13 years, 9.7% of students reported cigarette use in the past 30 days [17]. Our study found a much higher rate (14.1%) of cigarette use. However, our finding, that about 19% of seventh graders used alcohol in the past month, is similar to the findings from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. This survey also indicated that 12–13 year olds had a 3% lifetime prevalence of marijuana use and inhalant use, with a
Conclusions
In today’s world where social acceptance of drug use is common, teaching adolescents drug-resistance skills, emphasizing self-efficacy to say “no,” and enhancing their critical decision-making skills might successfully reduce the level of illegal substance use by adolescents. Because younger adolescents are already beginning to use substances, prevention needs to occur early and focus on enhancing skills that will directly affect behavior.
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