Self-derogation and peer approval of drug abuse amongst male secondary school students

Substance use among teenagers appears to be more a function of peer approval and peer drug use. This study examined the relationship between adolescents’ self-derogation and their responses to Peers’ Approval of Drug Abuse (PADA) among male secondary school students. In this study, 3000 students 7th to the 9th grade secondary schools completed a self-report questionnaire consisting of self-derogation/rejection and peer drug abuse approval measure. About 86% of students announced, most of their peers disapproved of the people using drugs, the higher the grade levels of the respondents, the higher their level of self-derogation and approval of drug abuse. The relationships were found between grade level and self-derogation, and also PADA. Grade of the students and their responses to Approval of Drug Abuse had statistically significant effects on the sense of self-derogation among the students. Our findings supported the higher the level of self-derogation amongst the students by grade level, the higher the level of their positive response to PADA. Significant differences were found in the student’s self-derogation by PADA suggest that and self-derogation and PADA are two factors that might precede drug dependency among this sample of male students.