Turkish High School Students' Attitudes Toward Addictive Substances: Association with Perceived Parental Attitudes

• NCJ Number: 228742
• Journal: Journal of Drug Education Volume: 39 Issue: 1 Dated: 2009 Pages: 59-71
• Author(s): Mehmet Ustuner; Kasim Aksoy; Niyazi Ozer
• Date Published: 2009
• Length: 13 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study determined the attitudes of 745 high school students in Turkey toward addictive substances in relation to variables that included gender, grade, and perceived parental attitudes.

Abstract

The study found that male students had more positive attitudes toward addictive substances compared to female students, and they had more positive views about using such substances. Both boys and girls in the higher grades tended to have more positive attitudes toward addictive substances than students in lower grades. In analyzing whether there was a correlation between students' attitudes toward addictive substances and their perceived democratic, protective, and authoritarian parental attitudes, the study found that parents' democratic attitudes toward their children correlated positively with students' negative attitudes toward addictive substances. On the other hand, parents with authoritarian and protective attitudes toward their children tended to correlate with students' more positive attitudes toward addictive substances. These findings suggest that educational programs on addictive substances should be provided in every high-school grade, with the frequency of such programs increasing at the higher grades. In addition, training programs for parents should emphasize the importance of developing and practicing democratic childrearing practices. The study used the purposive sampling method to select 745 high-school students (330 females and 415 males) who were attending general and vocational-technical high schools in the Province of Malatya, Turkey, during the 2004-2005 school year. The study selected only those students who lived with both natural parents. Students were administered the Addictive Substance Attitude Scale, which was developed by the researchers in order to determine the students' attitude toward addictive substances. They were also administered the Parental Attitudes Scale (Kuzgun and Eldeleklioglu, 2005), which included three subscales that measured students' perceptions of parents' behaviors as being democratic, authoritarian, or protective-demanding. 1 table and 45 references