ALCOHOLISM AND ADOLESCENTS

Abstract

Alcohol abuse is a worldwide problem that threatens social, economic, and family life. Our country is a postwar society, currently going through a transition period. Therefore, various risk factors related to alcohol and other kinds of substance abuse, like social, economic and health factors can be found here. Parental influence and peer pressure seem to have a strong impact on adolescents' behavior. Youngsters like to experiment with risky life styles, without adequate knowledge about long-term health effects. lt is well known that drug abuse is common in early adolescence, with almost the same epidemiological characteristics in both economically developed and undeveloped countries. In order to develop an appropriate prevention strategy, it is necessary to be aware of all relevant risk factors first. Objective: Finding risk factors relating to alcohol abuse among adolescents. Data and Method: The research focused on 600 adolescents ( 400 in Sarajevo Canton and 200 in Tuzla Canton -in both their rural and urban parts). This group is of an equal gender and age distributions. The research tool used was Q 2000. Study design is prospective, epidemiological and analytical. Results were compared within the groups, between the Cantons and between the groups. Out of the total number of the adolescents, 15,55% of them were found to be alcohol abusers. The results show numerous risk factors relating to alcohol abuse among adolescents that could be used as a starting point for planning the prevention activities. Key words: alcohol, abuse, epidemiological, adolescents, rural, urban".