Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.48188/hczz.3.1.2
Attitudes of young people toward addiction
Ante Buljubašić
orcid.org/0000-0002-2098-5746
; University Department of Health Studies of the University of Split
Luciana Luketin
; University Hospital of Split
Amneris Milano Bekavac
; Health Center of Split-Dalmatia County
Abstract
Objective: The objective of this work is to assess young people’s attitudes towards addiction.Methods: For the research, questionnaires were used to collect sociodemographic characteristics and a questionnaire related to respondents’ attitudes towards drug consumption, consisting of thirty-nine statements related to respondents’ attitudes towards addictions, given to respondents in direct contact. The research was voluntary and anonymous.Results: 502 respondents participated in the research, of which 246 (49%) were men and 256 (51%) were women aged 15 to 18. The respondents were first (N=261) and fourth (N=241) grade high school students. To the statements “Cannabis use should not be legal” and “It is not normal for young people to try drugs at least once”, men took significantly more favorable attitudes. First and fourth graders answered statistically significantly differently to the statement “Occasional use of cannabis/marijuana is dangerous”, while the answers of first and fourth graders to the statement “Most young people try ecstasy today” are statistically significantly different. By analyzing the responses by schools to the statements “All drugs are not equally harmful to your health” and “Occasional use of cannabis/marijuana is dangerous” statistically significantly different responses were evaluated.Conclusions: Although the majority of respondents have positive attitudes about addictions and believe that education about addictions is necessary already at an early stage of education, the results showed that every fifth respondent in the first grade of high school and every third respondent in the fourth grade of high school consume cannabis. Such results speak in favor of the needs of a systematic approach of the wider community to solving this problem.
Keywords
adolescent; addiction; drug; supstance use
Hrčak ID:
302260
URI
Publication date:
4.5.2023.
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