Substance use and gambling among children in juvenile detention (diagnostic) centres in the Czech Republic

Background: Various studies describe the emergence of addiction as a negative interplay of bio- psycho- social factors. It was found that children and adolescents who get into diagnos- tic institutions are exposed to multiple factors that increase the likelihood of developing problematic behaviours, substance abuse and gambling than the general population. It is thus likely that in the future they will be more vulnerable to addiction than the general population. Objectives: Main goals of this research were to provide an overview of the situation of sub- stance abuse among children and adolescents in diagnostic institutes in the Czech Republic and to compare selected data with results of the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs of 2011 (ESPAD). Another objective was to find the specifics of drug abuse and gambling in clients of diagnostic centres in different parts of the Czech Republic. Methods: Data for this study were collected by the interviewer using a questionnaire, which was inspired by the questionnaire from the ESPAD survey and was also extended to include issues related to gambling. Data were processed by descriptive analysis in MS Excel. Results: The results show that boys use addictive substances and play betting games more often than girls. Daily smoking was..