Resumen

DE LA VILLA MORAL JIMENEZ, María et al. Differential effects on attitudes regarding alcohol experimentation and risk perception among Spanish adolescents consumers of cannabis and alcohol. Salud Ment [online]. 2009, vol.32, n.2, pp.125-138. ISSN 0185-3325.

Introduction This research offers a comprehensive analysis of the distinctive status of Alcohol in two types of young consumers (alcohol and alcohol/ cannabis), which is internalised by the consumers themselves, creating a distortion in their risk perceptions inherent to experimentation. In this sense, the focus of this study is on the change experienced in the attitude sphere in a threefold dimension: cognitive factors (beliefs, expectations, perceptions, etc.), affective factors (identification with the user, liking or disliking, etc.), and behavioural factors (inclination to accept the habit); as well as risk perception and the conscience of the physical and/or psychosocial damage derived from alcohol experimentation and the motivations that lead to its consumption in a sample of adolescents from four High Schools in the Principality of Asturias (Spain). We link such attitude profiles to the social representation of recreational drugs associated with socio-cognitive restructurating processes promoted by the corresponding user mentalities. In addition, there is evidence of the influence of the sociocultural context on the distinctive status of the psychoactive substances analysed, in this case alcohol and those derived from cannabis. Contrary to the high permissiveness towards alcohol, other psychoactive substances, such as cannabis products, are socially demonised, as they have been considered a gateway for the use of other drugs coming from a tradition far from the western one. However, there appear to be more permissive consciences lately. In relation to young people, attitudes of guilt are being made more flexible, a tendency that can be extended to the distortion of risk perception in alcohol consumption among the users of cannabis products themselves. Strictly, we should consider the distinctive perceptions of the risks associated with experimentation and the attitude patterns that identify them. We must also consider cannabis products and whether or not they are being compared to alcohol as a social drug, or if, on the contrary, the rejection conscience of such practices is being reinforced. Materials and method A distinctive and descriptive analysis of users of alcohol and cannabis products with respect to non-users is presented. This analysis encompasses the attitude sphere, risk perception and the knowledge of the negative consequences derived from the use of alcohol and other experimentation with psychoactive substances in a sample of 273 adolescents, chosen from four High Schools in the Principality of Asturias (Spain) by means of an intentional sampling. They have different academic levels and are within the ages of 14 to 18, the average age being 16.5. 140 of them are girls (51.3% of the sample) and 133 boys (48.7% remaining). The main variables studied are those related to attitudes towards adolescents' use of alcohol alone and those who habitually use it with cannabis products. The main study variables are represented by the attitude sphere, risk perception, the problematic of alcohol consumption, and the knowledge of the negative consequences derived from alcohol consumption and from other experimentations with cannabis and other psychoactive substances. A questionnaire, created ad hoc, has been provided by the researchers, which, under the label of Scale of attitudes and habits of alcohol consumption, includes an analysis of different related elements in the aetiological proposal. The value of Alpha in 273 valid cases and 142 items is .9171. With regard to the research procedure, an anonymous presentation of the Scale to the aforementioned group of students over a two-week time period has been prepared. For the statistical treatment of the data, a statistics package SPSS, version 14.0 has been used. Results According to the results obtained, it is confirmed that adolescent alcohol consumers, on one hand, and those who consume alcohol and cannabis products, on the other, show attitudes of great permissiveness towards consumption, distorted beliefs and expectations, socio-affective alienation and scarce sensitising with respect to those affected by the problematic of it, and a favourable disposition to consumption and even an alcoholic habituation. Firstly, a comparative analysis of response percentages has been done, before indicators through which different aspects of the cognitive, affective and behavioural dimensions of the attitude towards alcohol consumption are evaluated, along with the distortion of risk perception and basic information about the consequences derived from consumption experiences, in either adolescents who are users of alcohol, or those who, apart from alcohol, are habitual users of cannabis products. From the descriptive analysis some conclusions can be drawn such as: • Obvious permissive disposition towards the process of alcoholic habituation in adolescent users of alcohol, mainly extensible to users of both alcohol and cannabis products. • From the evaluation of the cognitive dimension of the attitudes, explicit disposition is confirmed, in the sense of displaying a distortion of these attitudes. This can be attributed to, as it has been pointed out in the theoretical exposition, the possible action of the user mentality. • In the evaluation of attitude aspects, a dominant tendency to display a scarce identification and sensitising disposition with respect to those who give up drinking or are abstemious and even to openly show rejection to congratulating somebody that has given up drinking. • Lastly, the finding of coincidences between adolescent alcohol users and those who also use cannabis products in the determination of the main motivations that drive their alcohol consumption. The tendency of a more permissive attitude towards alcohol consumption in adolescents is confirmed along with a distorted perception of the risks derived from questions related to organic damage associated with experimentation. In the evaluation of the alcoholism problematic in our society, we also have found the confirmation of a mentality associated with experimentation that leads to a distortion of the damages derived from experimentation. Therefore, with respect to the distinctive analysis of the main motivations that drive alcohol consumption, a tendency of evasion of routine is confirmed. Peer pressure by consumer friends, disposition to lose one's inhibitions, meeting people, and experiencing euphoria are the main reasons that drive experimentation in adolescents who consume alcohol and, also, in those users of both alcohol and cannabis products. A tendency to recognise the scarce negative consequences suffered is derived from the analysis of the degree of perceived problems stemming from experimentation with different psychoactive substances, as well as the risk perception and negative consequences derived from their experiences of alcohol consumption and from the main explicit reasons for not drinking. According to an analysis procedure similar to the aforementioned, the importance of the differences found between consumers and non-consumers either of alcohol or both alcohol and cannabis products could be determined, confirming recognition of worse consequences perceived on physical and psychosocial health derived from experimentation, even though it cannot benefit a real consciousness, as has been confirmed through the previous attitude analysis.

Palabras llave : Alcohol; cannabis; adolescence; attitudes; risk perceptions.

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