Percepciones de adolescentes y expertos sobre estrategias preventivas del consumo de drogas en el ámbito educativo

Abstract

The present investigative work had as objective to describe the perceptions of adolescents and experts about the preventive strategies of drug use in the educational ambit. It is a qualitative study by means of an exploratory cross-sectional design, for which were worked with two study groups: six expert professional in the thematic of prevention of drug consumption that provide their services in the Drug Technical Secretariat, in the District of Education and in the Departments of Student Counseling of Azuay; in addition, 12 students between 15 to 17 years old of the Educational Unit “Jaime Roldós Aguilera” of the Abdón Calderón parish of the Santa Isabel canton; the instruments used were semi-structured interviews and focus groups respectively. The results show that both experts and adolescents recognize that strategies of influence, development of competences and control are executed, while those of environmental design are difficult to implement. Experts perceive that preventive strategies must be interdependent, responding to a multidimensional vision and not only to the medical and legal models. Adolescents consider that it is necessary to modify the application of most strategies and emphasize the importance of taking into account their participation in preventive processes. Finally, the two groups perceive as relevant the articulated work with prevention actors such as the family, educational institutions, authorities and the community.