Exploring Gozitan adolescents’ attitudes towards the abuse of alcohol and cigarettes amongst their cohort

Abstract

This research aims to throw light on young Gozitan adolescents’ (aged 12-16) attitudes towards the abuse of alcohol and cigarettes among their cohort. This research study attempts to explore if these youths in their early teens are aware of the consequences of alcohol and cigarette abuse. This research will also focus on understanding the reasons why some youths start consuming these two legal substances at such an early stage in their life, and on exploring the social factors which are influencing youths to start consuming either of or both these two legal substances. Such social factors could be culture, social media, parents and peers. The empirical component of this study is based on a quantitative approach. Data was collected by means of a questionnaire. Data was extracted from a sample of 282 secondary-level students during their Personal and Social Development (PSD) lessons. The participants were selected from both church and state secondary schools through a stratified sampling. Following the data analysis, it was found that 45% of the Gozitan youths aged between 12 and 16 years represented in the sample have drunk alcohol in the previous 30 days while 15% of the same population smoked cigarettes in the previous month. Moreover, it was found that males tend to consume slightly more of these two legal substances than their female counterparts. Different social factors that could be related to drinking and smoking were also analysed in this research. Among the social factors studied, peer pressure was found to be the most influential on the adolescents’ attitudes towards these habits. This study should be relevant not only to social workers but also to PSD teachers as it throws light on Gozitan youths’ attitudes towards the two legal substances. The results of this study can better inform social workers, PSD teachers, and other professionals working in substance abuse prevention. This could lead to the formulation of better approaches and policies in dealing with this abuse among Gozitans.