Day Parties, Drug Abuse, HIV/AIDS Transmission and Unintended Pregnancy: Among School Teenagers

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate the impact of teenagers day party and practices of alcohol and substance abuse on the health of teens and to examine the relationship between teenagers’ day party events and risky behavior. This study sought to clarify the types of risky behavior and substances used before, during and after the event. Method: A written survey was administered to students aged 15–17 years in two selected high schools in Addis Ababa. The study method adopts mixed research design with various data triangulation methods. Both qualitative and quantitative data collection tools and analysis techniques were used. Result: Of the 284 sample participants 86% of them are visiting day party for the sake of having fun and to experiment alcohol and other substances freely and considered the event as an opportunity to do this. Day party event was strongly correlated with teenagers’ risky behavior as indicated r=0.89. Chewing chat (38%), drinking alcohol (36.2%) and smoking cigarette and ganja (32.7%) were identified the most commonly substance use before, during and after the event. Of the samples, 77.11% were reported to have school absenteeism the next day of the party event. Female teenagers were found to perceive their high level of vulnerability to health related problems than do males teenagers’ for T=0.002, P<0.05 with 95% of CI. Conclusion: Although this study has been done with a non-representative sample it was possible to identify the characteristics and practices of teenagers in the day party event. It was also possible to identify the standard use of drugs, and substances in the event were the common fashions and efforts were made to evaluate some of the high risk behaviors for both males and females. The relationship between the use of psycho-active substances and risky behavior are found to be directly correlated. Findings from this study can be used to design an intervention strategy how to organize healthy and monitored day party events. This fact can be a way to discuss the insertion of the drug thematic in the various courses offered at high and junior high schools. Besides it could help to make effective the planning of policies for the prevention in the school context.