Socio Demographic Profile of Late Childhood and Adolescence Abusing Cannabis

Abstract

Adolescence is a transition period from childhood to adulthood. Along with many other conflicts, students at
this age group are likely to encounter drug abuse for the first time. Identifying the socio demographic profile
will help in prevention of substance use disorder to some extent. Objective: Identify the socio demographic
profile of adolescents abusing cannabis. Methods: Data were collected from 100 patients from two deaddiction centres using a survey questionnaire after getting consent. Results: The demographic findings
revealed that the majority 63% belonged to the age group of 15-20 years and the highest 64% of the samples
were hailing from the urban area. Significantly, the prevalence of substance use is high among children from
a nuclear family. Majority (42%) were belonging to high income family group (>30,000/month). Analysis
of the family status revealed that among 100 samples, fathers of 62 patients were working abroad. In 92%
of the cases there was family history of substance abuse. All these findings suggest that an in-depth study is
needed to identify the role of demographic factors in cannabis abuse.