Competência social, dificuldades interpessoais e consumo de drogas em adolescentes escolares de Monterrey, N.L. México / Social Competence, Interpersonal Difficulties and Drugs Consumption among Adolescent Students in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico.

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2007

RESUMO

This descriptive, correlational study aimed to carry out the cross-cultural adaptation of the instruments Teenage Inventory of Social Skills (TISS) and the Questionnaire of Interpersonal Difficulties in Adolescence (QIDA), besides identifying the personal, family and social characteristics (social competence and interpersonal difficulties) that can influence drugs consumption among adolescents of school age in Monterrey, N. L. Mexico. The methodological steps were followed for the cross-cultural adaptation: 1) Translation, 2) Retro-translation, 3) Revision for a committee of specialists and finally the application of a pilot proof of the TISS and QIDA instruments, in a sample of 1221 secondary-school students. The results show that the TISS instrument is a reliable tool to assess social competence. Acceptable internal consistency values were obtained when applied to Mexican adolescent students. The intercorrelations between the prosocial and antisocial conduct subscales showed to be negative and statistically significant, which confirms the existence of different conduct domains, besides verifying the existence of two factors through the factorial analysis applied to the TISS instrument. As to the QIDA Questionnaire, adequate psychometric properties were found, as well as high reliability and acceptable values of Cronbachs Alpha for the total scale and for each of the interpersonal difficulty subscales (assertiveness, heterosexual relations, talking in public, family relationships and relationships with friends), with positive correlation coefficients between the subscales; and the multidimensional nature of the QIDA questionnaire was affirmed. On the other hand, significant differences in prosocial and antisocial conduct appeared according to gender, age, and education level. Moreover, differences in interpersonal difficulties were found depending on the adolescentsgender and age. With respect to drugs consumption at some time in their life, more than 40% had consumed alcoholic beverages and 36.2% tobacco. What illegal drugs are concerned, 2.4% had used inhalants, 2.0% had experimented marihuana and 0.8% had consumed cocaine at some time in their life. No differences in drugs consumption were found according to gender. However, differences in tobacco consumption were found among the adolescent students depending on age, education level, occupation and living with the father or not. It was also identified that more than 80.0% presented very low dependence on tobacco consumption through the FAGESTROM questionnaire. As to alcohol consumption, men reported the highest level of current consumption, highlighting consumption differences according to age and education level. The AUDIT instrument showed that more than 30.0% presented hazardous alcohol consumption, 14.8% of participants displayed symptoms of addiction and 29.7% manifested damage related to alcohol consumption. What the consumption of illegal drugs is concerned, no differences were found in the study variables. It was observed that a higher level of prosocial conduct corresponded to a lower level of alcohol consumption among the adolescents. A relation was found between antisocial conduct and the consumption of alcohol and illegal drugs. Interpersonal difficulties did not reveal a relation with drugs consumption. It should be appointed that the variables with probability of predicting tobacco consumption were age, gender, antisocial conduct, interpersonal difficulties to talk in public and heterosexual relations. As to alcohol consumption, predicting variables were age, gender, education level, antisocial conduct, interpersonal difficulties related to assertiveness, heterosexual relations, family relationships and relationships with friends. It was shown that antisocial conduct was the only variable with probability to predict illegal drugs consumption in the adolescent students.

ASSUNTO(S)

interpersonal difficulties adolescent students social competence consumo de drogas drugs consumption dificuldades interpessoais competência social adaptação transcultural cross -cultural adaptation. adolescentes escolares

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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