Is sense of belonging at school associated with cannabis use among secondary school students in Barbados?

ABSTRACT

The objective of this study was to assess whether students’ sense of belonging at school was associated with cannabis use among secondary school students in Barbados. This was a cross-sectional study involving a nationally representative weighted sample of 8,538 students drawn from 2^nd to 6^th forms across public and private secondary schools in Barbados in 2013. Descriptive and inferential statistics was performed using SPSS. Students who had a sense of belonging at school, were attending public schools and were in the 2nd form, had higher odds of reporting past-year and past-month cannabis use. We conclude that there was a significant positive association between students’ sense of belonging at school and cannabis use.

KEYWORDS:

• Sense of belonging at school
• cannabis use
• substance use
• illicit drug use
• Barbados

Acknowledgments

We thank our colleagues from Barbados for supplying the dataset.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.