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Abstract
France presents one of the highest prevalence of teenagers aged 15-year-olds who report they already have experienced cannabis in Europe. Data from the French 2010 Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HSBC) survey and environmental parameters typifying schools ‘neighborhoods were used to study cannabis experimentation. We conducted a two-level logistic regression (clusters being schools) on 4,175 French 8th–10th graders from 156 schools. Several individual parameters were linked to cannabis experimentation. Living in a non-intact family, feeling insufficiently monitored, having poor communication with mother and being from a family with a high socio-economic status (SES) were all associated with increased risk of cannabis experimentation. At environmental level, only being in a priority education area was linked to this behavior, without explaining differences among schools.
THE AUTHORS
Dr Sonia Jovic is an epidemiologist. She works for the medical research unit INSERM U1027 (UMR1027 Inserm, University Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France).
Dr Christophe Genolini is researcher in bio-statistics at INSERM and an associate professor at the Université of Paris-Ouest.
Dr Cyrille Delpierre is a social epidemiologist working in the INSERM team 5 of the UMR 1027. His current research interests focus on the analysis of the mechanisms building social inequalities in health including the role of primary and secondary access to care, especially in the field of cancer. More specifically, his research refers to life course epidemiology approach and is based on data from cohorts or registries.”
Sanislas Spilka is statistician at the French monitoring center for drug and drug addiction (OFDT). He is head of coordination and development of the two main large surveys within the teenage and general population on drug use in France: ESCAPAD and ESPAD. He is member of the research unit (U669) Within the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm), which focuses on mental health issues among adolescent in a public health perspective. He took part in research projects to develop and evaluate screening instruments that can be used in general population surveys like the Cannabis abuse Screening test (CAST). He is involved in Validation of the Substance Use Risk Profile Scale (SURPS) screening test in the French context. He is also involved in steering group of the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE). He is expert member of the working group on substance use among Adolescents within the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm).
Virginie Ehlinger is an MS in biostatistics, working for the medical research unit INSERM U1027 (UMR1027 Inserm—University Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France).
James Ross holds an MS in psychology. He recently joined Westat, Inc., in Rockville, Maryland, USA, as senior scientific advisor after 30 years at Macro International, Inc., where he chaired the Institutional Review Board and served as managing director of the public health division. His current interests include evaluability assessment; measuring child and adolescent health behavior (drugs, tobacco, sexuality, physical activity, fitness); and evaluating programs to reduce adolescent health risk behavior.
Dr Catherine Arnaud is a physician and an epidemiologist. She leads a research team (UMR1027 Inserm—University Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France), which develops researches in perinatal epidemiology, childhood disabilities and adolescent health.
Dr Emmanuelle Godeau is a Public Health medical doctor and holds as well a PhD in social anthropology. She works for the French Ministry of Education and belongs to a medical research unit (UMR1027 Inserm—University Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France). She is the Principal investigator for the French HSBC survey in France since 2000. Her current research topics are health and health behaviors (including risk behaviors) of young people as well as inclusive education.
GLOSSARY
Cannabis experimentation: Teenagers who declared they have consumed cannabis at least once in their life were considered as having experienced cannabis, thus “cannabis experimentation” is the fact to have experimented it at least once in life.
HBSC: The Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey explores health, health behaviors, wellbeing and their determinants and social contexts, cross-nationally. It is based on a self-reported questionnaire, completed in classroom. This survey is conducted every four years on a new representative sample of student, from 5th to 10th grade in France.
IRIS: These are the smallest geographical units from the French census, providing data such as the rate of unemployment, the proportion of mono-parental families, ….
Multilevel modelization: This kind of modelization allows taking into account the fact that individuals grouped in clusters present some similarities. Thus, data are not totally independent. In our case, teenagers are grouped in schools.
Socialization instances: During adolescence, teenagers are mainly exposed to three instances which provide them some values that can affect their behaviors, the way they think. The first one is the family, as young people are not yet independent. The second one is the school, where they spend their days. The third one is their peers, with whom they share friendship.
Notes
1 We asked teenagers: “In your opinion, what does your class teacher(s) think about your school performance compared to your classmates?”