The Europe an Schools Project on Alcohol and other Drugs (ESPAD) was concerned with the substance use , beliefs, attitudes and risk factors among over 50,000 16-year-olds in 26 European countries. Based on this data, the present paper focuses on critical issues in prevent ion and uses a country-level analysis with focus on the extent that contextual and cultural factors interact with factors in...

AIMS The purpose of this study was to establish the factors associated with Ecstasy use in secondary school students in Turkey. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS This is a survey of a representative sample drawn from cities in different geographical regions in Turkey in 1998 and 2001. The questionnaire was administered to a total of 18,556 and 11,911 10th-grade students in 1998 and 2001, respe...

Alcohol Policy in Ireland has come under criticism from the IMO and many other agencies who claim that the Government does not do enough to limit the damage done to our society by alcohol. The recent budget recommendations to decrease the price of alcohol add fuel to the debate. The Irish Medical Organisation has criticised the Governments budget proposal to reduce excise duty on all types of a...

he increased availability of gambling opportunities resulting from the progressive liberalisation sector coupled with widespread access to online gambling, is raising concerns regarding adolescents’ participation in and possible increase problem-gambling. However, influence different products commercialised across countries less known. This first study estimating problem (PG) prevalence examini...

BACKGROUND Cigarette smoking has been shown to act as a 'gateway' to cannabis use and further risk taking behaviours. This study aims to (1) establish the prevalence of cigarette smoking and cannabis use in Irish teenagers, (2) to quantify the strength and significance of the association of cigarette smoking and cannabis use and other high risk behaviours and (3) examine whether the above assoc...

BACKGROUND The relationship between depression and aggressive behaviors in adolescents has previously been reported in clinical and epidemiological studies. However, there is conflicting evidence concerning the effect of gender on this relationship. This study tested whether the link between depressive symptoms and physical aggression differed between boys and girls in a large community-based s...

AIMS To study the reliability of adolescents' self-reported drinking and perceived drunkenness in surveys. METHODS The data from two cross-sectional school-based questionnaire surveys with representative cluster samples (the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs, ESPAD) in Finland were used; there were 2161 (1995) and 3109 (1999) 15-year-old respondents. The response rates...