NCJ Number
177966
Journal
Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Dated: March 1999 Pages: 51-59
Date Published
1999
Length
9 pages
Annotation
An interview-based survey of young people in two inner cities in England was undertaken in 1995 to provide information on contrasting ethnic groups and to assess young people's ideas about and attitudes toward drug use, drug education, strategies used by parents to discourage drug use, and parental expectations of school-based drug education.
Abstract
The 20 state secondary and grant-maintained schools in Camden and Islington were asked to participate in the survey, and 18 agreed to do so. Of a sample of 371 young people, 158 young people and 97 of their parents agreed to be interviewed. Results showed that the number of young people being offered, experimenting with, and/or using drugs on a regular basis was increasing and the level of exposure to illicit drug use increased with age. The majority of young teenagers, however, did not experiment with or use drugs regularly. Much of the reported exposure to drugs and personal drug use involved marijuana. Parental anxieties about the lack of appropriate drug education were evident, many parents appeared to lack basic facts about drug use, and most parents actively discouraged drug use. Schools provided very little drug education during or before the 8th year of schooling, and less than 25 percent of young people could remember being taught about drugs in school. Nearly 75 percent of young people said they had learned something new about drugs at school, and about 50 percent stressed the importance of both home and school in shaping their ideas about health. 23 references and 2 tables