Alcohol and drug abuse among secondary schoolchildren in Trinidad and Tobago - abstract

ABSTRACT

A questionnaire survey of a stratified, randomized sample of 1,603 (80 percent of sample) secondary school students, aged 14-18 years, on substance abuse, was conducted in Trinidad and Tobago in 1988. The life-time prevalence rate for alcohol was 84 percent, tobacco 34.8 percent, marijuana 8.0 percent and cocaine 2.0 percent. Alcohol was the substance most consistently used and students' first exposure to drinking alcohol was by family members in childhood (46.1 percent) or experimentation later. Transitions from primary to secondary schools and from junior to senior schools were associated with increased alcohol use. Ethnic reversals of substance abuse among high school students were observed by a high use of alcohol among Indo-Trinidadian and low use among Afro-Trinidadian students (Xý = 56.00 df=1). Similarly, the use of marijuana was high in Afro-Trinidadian students when compared to Indo-Trinidadians (Xý = 28.00 df=1). The use of alcohol by students was positively correlated to its use by fathers and negatively with religious activities. The simultaneous use of drugs among students appears to be a growing problem. Secondary school students in Trinidad and Tobago are foremost among users of alcohol, tobacco and cocaine in the Caribbean region. There is a need for the implementation of culturally relevant educational and prevention programmes in schools (AU)