Adolescent Drug Abuse in Hong Kong: Prevalence, Psychosocial Correlates, and Prevention

Abstract

Purpose: Hong Kong has devised strategies to tackle the problem of psychoactive drug abuse in adolescents since the mid-1990s. This paper sought to find out whether previous research and prevention work has made use of concepts and ideas that are akin to the Positive Youth Development (PYD) approach. The prospect of adopting PYD in Hong Kong's drug prevention system was explored.

Methods: Data from an official database and from school surveys were presented to show the increasing prevalence of psychoactive drug abuse in the past two decades. Major research findings pertaining to psychosocial factors in adolescent drug abuse were reviewed, aiming to capture the compatibility of these research findings with the PYD framework. Lastly, the possibility of integrating PYD into existing prevention programs was discussed.

Conclusions: Previous research on psychosocial factors has covered a variety of PYD elements, and one particular effort had been made to specifically apply PYD constructs in a longitudinal study of PYD and adolescent problem behavior. It was suggested that PYD researchers should join hands with service professionals to consolidate and finetune the PYD approach for school-based prevention programs for students, and for tertiary prevention programs for clients in treatment modalities.

Keywords: Adolescent drug abuse; Hong Kong; Positive youth development; Prevention of adolescent drug abuse; Psychosocial correlates of drug abuse.