Efectos diferenciales sobre las actitudes ante la experimentación con alcohol en adolescentes españoles consumidores de cannabis y alcohol

TITLE: Differential effects on attitudes to experimentation with alcohol in Spanish adolescents consumers of cannabis and alcohol

AUTOR: María Villa del Moral, Anastasio Ovejero, Carlos Sirvent

FUENTE: Salud mental, ISSN 0185-3325, Vol. 32, Nº. 2, 2009, págs. 125-138

PALABRAS CLAVE: Alcohol, cannabis, adolescence, actitutdes, percepcion del riesgo

KEYWORDS: Alcohol, cannabis, adolescence, attitudes, risk perceptions

RESUMEN:

Nuestro objeto de estudio es el análisis de las actitudes hacia la experimentación con sustancias psicoactivas (alcohol y cannabis) de acuerdo a una triple dimensionalidad: factores coqnitivos (creencias, expectativas, percepciones, etc.), afectivos (identificación con los usuarios, aqrado o desagrado, etc.) y comportamentales (inclinación para la aceptación del hábito). Así como la percepción de riesqos y la conciencia de daño físico y/o psicosocial derivado de la experimentación con alcohol. Además de analizar los motivadores del consumo en una muestra de adolescentes de cuatro Centros de Secundaria del Principado de Asturias, España.
Se ofrece un análisis comprehensivo del estatuto diferencial que el alcohol tiene entre dos perfiles de jóvenes consumidores (alcohol y alcohol/cannabis) que es interiorizado por los propios consumidores afectando a una distorsión de sus percepciones de riesgo inherentes a la experimentación. Vinculamos semejantes perfiles actitudinales a procesos de reestructuración sociocoqnitiva yde carácter motivacional impulsados por las correspondientes mentalidades del usuario. Asimismo, se evidencia la influencia del contexto sociocultural sobre el estatuto diferencial de las sustancias psicoactivas objeto de análisis, en este caso alcohol y derivados cannábicos

ABSTRACT:

This research offers a comprehensive analysis of the distinctive status of Alcohol in two types of younq consumers (alcohol and alcohol/ cannabis), which is internalised bythe consumers themselves, creatinq 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.), affectivefactors (identification with the user, likinq or dislikinq, 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 Hiqh Schools in the Principality of Asturias (Spain). We link such attitude profiles to the social representation of recreational druqs associated with socio-coqnitive restructuratinq processes promoted by the correspondinq user mental//íes. 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 qateway 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 younq people, attitudes of quilt are beinq made more flexible, a tendency that can be extended to the distortion of risk perception in alcohol consumption amonq 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 beinq compared to alcohol asa social druq, or if, on the contrary, the rejection conscience of such practices is being reinforced.