Asante Kwaku Oppong, Nefale Mashudu Tshifaro
Department of Psychology, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana.
Department of Psychology, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein 9301, South Africa.
Behav Sci (Basel). 2021 Feb 27;11(3):28. doi: 10.3390/bs11030028.
Using two cross-sectional surveys with a purposive sample of 376 homeless children and adolescents in both Ghana and South Africa, this study was conducted to examine the prevalence, sociodemographic and psychosocial correlates of substance use among street children and adolescents. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to obtain information on substance use, sociodemographic and psychosocial variables. Both bivariate and multivariate analyses showed that street-connected adolescents in Ghana reported higher prevalence of lifetime alcohol use and past-month alcohol use than those in South Africa. The protective effect of male gender was not observed in South Africa but significantly more pronounced in Ghana for all substances except past-month marijuana use. Sexual assault, indirect sexual victimization, physical beating, robbery, assault with a weapon and survival sex increased the odds of lifetime alcohol use and past-month alcohol use in Ghana. However, in South Africa, only robbery and assault with a weapon increased the odds of lifetime alcohol use while robbery and sexual assault increased the odds of past-month alcohol use. These results have implications for the development of harm reduction interventions, taking into consideration both the psychosocial and cultural context of substance use.
本研究采用两项横断面调查，在加纳和南非对376名无家可归儿童和青少年进行了立意抽样，旨在调查街头儿童和青少年物质使用的患病率、社会人口学及心理社会相关因素。通过访谈员实施的问卷来获取有关物质使用、社会人口学及心理社会变量的信息。双变量和多变量分析均显示，加纳与街头有联系的青少年报告的终生饮酒率和过去一个月饮酒率均高于南非的青少年。在南非未观察到男性性别起到的保护作用，但在加纳，除过去一个月使用大麻外，对所有物质而言，男性性别起到的保护作用都更为显著。在加纳，遭受性侵犯、间接性受害、身体殴打、抢劫、武器袭击和生存性交易增加了终生饮酒和过去一个月饮酒的几率。然而，在南非，只有抢劫和武器袭击增加了终生饮酒的几率，而抢劫和性侵犯增加了过去一个月饮酒的几率。这些结果对减少伤害干预措施的制定具有启示意义，要同时考虑物质使用的心理社会和文化背景。
