engleski

Community and family factors as predictors of drug use by youth: Croatian perspective

Within the research project Prevention of behavior disorders in the local community a comprehensive need assessment was conducted. In this poster data about drug use in youth will be presented from three different sources: epidemiological data from national statistical reports, research and focus groups. Data from recent Croatian research showed that 10% of youth in Istria use marijuana on regular bases (Bezinovic, 2003), 22% high school students used marijuana at least once (results for Croatia, ESPAD 2003). According to Public Health Institute (2005) availability of drug is very high in Croatia – 39, 1% high schools students report that they can buy drugs in school, 70, 6% in clubs and 74, 2% in their neighborhoods. Results of focus groups with citizens of County of Istria, conducted within the project, emphasizes that drug use in the most common risk behavior in their communities. In the original research within mentioned project, one of the research issues was to identify community and family factors that predict drug use in youth. The sample consisted of 489 youth (age: 15-18) and for collecting data the “ Adolescent survey” was used. For identification of prediction value of some community and family factors regarding drug use regression analysis was used. Descriptive analysis showed that 10.6% of respondents used drugs 3 or more times in last 12 months. In the same time that was criteria item. Regression analysis results showed that there is statistically significant correlation between reported drug use and (1) availability of drug in community and community attitude towards drug use and (2) parents attitudes towards drug use, discipline for involving in risk behaviour, frequency of family conversation about risk behaviour and drug use by other family member. Presented results lead to conclusion that drugs use by youth is an issue that should be consider in planning prevention strategies on local level (County of Istria). Community and family factors that could influence drug use by youth should be addressed in prevention interventions.

community risk factors; family risk factors; youth drug use

nije evidentirano