Relações entre contexto familiar e uso de drogas em adolescentes de ensino médio

Abstract

This study aimed to describe the family context characteristics of high school adolescents and their relation to psychoactive substance abuse. It is a cross-sectional and descriptive study, with a population of 657 secondary-school students in the city of Leon, Nicaragua, which corresponded to 31% of the research context. Data was collected through an anonymous questionnaire. Results show that 56% of the adolescents were living with both parents and 32% only with the mother, 86% declared a good relationship with the mother, but 24% did not show confidence in the mother figure. Regarding psychoactive substance use within the family context, 52% of the adolescents' family presented previous use events and, in 42% of cases, the father was the user. Results offer important contributions to design public healthcare policies and to outline prevention strategies for use among adolescents.