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The objective of this study was to stablish the prevalence of psychoactive substances consumption among students and to associate this consumption with the socio-demographic, family structures, and personality traits. The study was set on a public technological institute of Medellín, Colombia during 2016. The next tests were applied once to the students: ASSIT, APGAR Family, NEO-FFI, ERI and a test of sociodemographic variables. The primary outcome in this study was the prevalence of consumption of psychoactive substances among students. In order to stablish the association between psychoactive substances and sociodemographic, family structures, and personality traits, a logistic regression model was fit. A total of 891 students participated in this study. The prevalence of psychoactive substances use among students was 51.6%. The logistic regression conducted on the data proved that males, among 18 to 24 years, with intrafamily deficit, and with low kindness were positively associated with greater PAS use (OR = 2.97, 2.72, 1.63, 9.32, respectively). Kindness aspects (e.g., confidence, frankness, counseling, sensitivity to others) and family relationships should be improved in order to prevent psychoactive substances use among students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows the analysis of the meaning of psychoactive drug consumption among indigenous students from the university located in Medellín, Colombia, 2012. This study used grounded theory, rooted in symbolic interactionism as analysis techniques. Six semi-structured and in-depth interviews were conducted, and 2 focal groups. As a result, the authors characterized the difference in meaning that consuming traditional plants and psychoactive substances has for indigenous communities and for the western community. Likewise, they identified the role of context, peer interaction, and cultural identity. It is concluded that the students’ concepts of traditional indigenous plants and psychoactive substances demonstrate that a transformation is taking place which westernizes the traditional meanings and practices. This is a consequence of the knowledge and experiences acquired in the city, an interaction with Occidentalism that can be detrimental, given their weak cultural identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To identify and characterize the social representations of drug use in a university context. Methodology: a framework was built by collecting the contributions of symbolic interactionism, interpretive ethnography, and textual analysis. Data collection was performed through 27 semi-structured interviews and 7 focus groups. Likewise, the Reading Paradigm, proposed by a cultural hermeneutics of anthropological nature, was used as an analysis technique. Results and discussion: we observed social representations such as drug use as a socializing element facilitating social relations and as an element that gives meaning to life by putting the subject in a context where he or she is accepted. Conclusion: certain socially constructed forms of knowledge appear in the signifiers of drugs. They generate, through the functions of social representations, satisfiers that make it possible, through communication, to construct languages that shape the identity within the group and favor adaptation to the social environment of the university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]