[Resistance to peer and partner pressure and tobacco and alcohol use among adolescents].
BACKGROUND
Drug consumption constitutes a public health problem in Mexico. In the international literature and from the health promotion perspective, the Life Skills Approach proposed by the World Health Organization identifies the ability to resist pressure as a key component in the prevention of legal and illegal drug use among adolescents.


OBJECTIVE
An instrument for measuring this ability was developed and validated in order to confirm whether, as the empirical evidence suggests, it differs between users and non-users of alcohol and tobacco.


METHODS
The sample was made up of 5651 adolescents, 2637 (47.9%) of whom were male and 2864 (52.1%) female. These participants were selected at random from among public high school pupils in Mexico City, and average age was 16.7 years. The instrument used was that validated in the first phase of the study. To measure patterns of use, we used a scale based on indicators derived from the National Addiction Survey (2002).


RESULTS
Factor analysis yielded three factors: peer pressure acceptance, partner pressure acceptance and peer/partner pressure resistance. Non-users of alcohol and tobacco scored higher in the ability to resist pressure than those who had used alcohol and tobacco in the last month.


CONCLUSIONS
Based on these results, the aim is to develop an addiction prevention program for public high school pupils in Mexico City.
Andrade Palos
Patricia
P
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. palos@servidor.unam.mx
Pérez de la Barrera
Citlalli
C
Alfaro Martínez
Lilia Bertha
LB
Sánchez Oviedo
Martha Elba
ME
López Montes de Oca
Alicia
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D012907:Smoking / Q000523:psychology*