Risk and protective factors associated with substance abuse amongst adolescents

Substance abuse remains one of the critical challenges facing South Africa. Research studies conducted locally and internationally, reflect a sharp increase in the number of young people that are falling prey to substance abuse (with the age of onset decreasing rapidly). These rising statistics, as well as the guidelines for evidence based practice suggest that drug prevention interventions need to be tailored to the needs of specific recipients of the service. The aim of the present study was therefore to understand the needs of a specific group of adolescents from a designated community in the Northern Areas of Port Elizabeth. This community has been riddled by gang violence, high levels of unemployment, teenage pregnancies, school dropout and in particular, large numbers of adolescent drug users. The goal of the study was therefore to enhance an understanding of the risk and protective factors associated with substance abuse amongst adolescents from this specific neighbourhood in the Northern Areas of Port Elizabeth. The study was imbedded in a socio-cultural and systemic theoretical framework. A qualitative research approach was adopted, employing an exploratory, descriptive and contextual research design to address the primary research question. A purposive sampling method was used to recruit eight non users and a snowball sampling technique was used (with the assistance of two gatekeepers) to identify eight substance users from the identified neighbourhood in the Northern Areas. An in-depth, semi-structured individual interview was used as the method of data collection with each of the 16 research participants. The data was analysed according to the steps for qualitative data analysis, as proposed by Tesch (in Creswell, 1994:155). The trustworthiness was enhanced by employing the four criteria proposed by Guba (in Krefting, 1991:214-222). The findings of the study indicate that the dominant risk factors for substance use are located at a family and community level. These included the absence of family structure, poor parental discipline and supervision, the presence of parental substance abuse, neglect of children and family disharmony. At a community level the risk factors included: the prevalence of drug outlets, normalization of substance use in the community, prevalence of gangsterism as a way life and source of income and apathy of community members in protecting their community. Protective factors were mutually exclusive and additional protective factors were discussed at length in the report. The findings which point to the adoption of an integrated community based approach to effect meaningful drug prevention strategies for substance abuse amongst adolescents in the studied community, are disseminated here in the form of a written report and will be prepared for submission to a journal for publicatio