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COMPLETED
Drugs: Young People's Awareness and Use of Illegal Drugs, and Views About Drug Education
“I’d like to have drug education from someone who knows, with personal experience. Someone who uses drugs or who used to use them. Otherwise it’s all words, words from people who don’t really know what the words mean” (14 year-old male)
Background
This project, which has now been completed, was commissioned by South West Surrey Health Authority in early 1995. TSA was asked by the Health Authority to undertake a large scale survey of young people aged 11-16 in Surrey, and their knowledge of and attitudes to illegal drugs. This information was needed in order for the Health Authority to plan and evaluate the drugs advice and education it provided for young people in the area.
The Project
The information collected concerned the following:
- the age at which young people are first aware of illegal drugs
- their awareness of different illegal drugs
- their sources of knowledge and information about different drugs
- what drugs they have been offered, and what they have used
- their views about the drugs education that they have received to date
- how and where they would like to receive information about illegal drugs
The research was undertaken during the first six months of 1995, with information collected from young people attending seven schools, both state and independent. In total, 2,049 young people completed questionnaires, which examined the above areas. In addition, 58 individual interviews were undertaken in order to explore the issues in more detail. The information collected was explored in terms of key variables such as gender, age, socio-economic status, and family background.
A full report on the project was written for the Health Authority in July 1995. As a result of the research the Health Authority made a number of changes to their school-based drug education work.
The results of this project have now been disseminated widely, at a number of international, national and local conferences, and a number of articles on the project have been published in national newspapers. Summaries of the results are available from the Trust. A paper entitled “Education and advice about illegal drugs: What do young people want?” was published in the journal ‘Drugs: Education, Prevention, and Policy’, in 1997. Copies of this article are available from TSA. The Trust organised a major conference entitled “Young people and illegal drugs: Research and practice”, which was held in York in June 1997. The results of the research were presented at this conference.
More information:
Please contact Young People in Focus
Email: info@youngpeopleinfocus.org.uk
Tel: 01273 693311
November 2005