Self-derogation and peer approval of drug abuse amongst male secondary school students

Substance use among teenagers appears to be more a function of peer approval and peer drug use. This study examined the relationship between adolescents’ self-derogation and their responses to Peers’ Approval of Drug Abuse (PADA) among male secondary school students. In this study, 3000 students 7th to the 9th grade secondary schools completed a self-report questionnaire consisting of self-derogation/rejection and peer drug abuse approval measure. About 86% of students announced, most of their peers disapproved of the people using drugs, the higher the grade levels of the respondents, the higher their level of self-derogation and approval of drug abuse. The relationships were found between grade level and self-derogation, and also PADA. Grade of the students and their responses to Approval of Drug Abuse had statistically significant effects on the sense of self-derogation among the students. Our findings supported the higher the level of self-derogation amongst the students by grade level, the higher the level of their positive response to PADA. Significant differences were found in the student’s selfderogation by PADA suggest that and self-derogation and PADA are two factors that might precede drug dependency among this sample of male students.