Sixteen per cent of students feel they have no goals or purpose in life, a survey carried out by Galway Senator Fidelma Healy Eames into the views of transition year students has revealed.

Fidelma Healy Eames.

Fine Gael Senator Healy Eames surveyed 235 transition year students aged 15 and 16 from nine counties in the west, midlands and south of the country over one day with the results showing that peer pressure/image and curiosity/rebellion are the main reasons for students taking drugs and alcohol.

"One of the problems we have in Ireland is that often policy decisions are made and resources allocated without knowing why kids are attracted to drugs/binge drinking. For this reason, I carried out this survey, which has returned valuable information that should be used when formulating policy. I will be bringing these findings to Minister Pat Carey's attention in relation to the drugs strategy.

"Peer pressure/image is the most important reason why young people are attracted to drugs followed closely by their desire to experiment. Specifically, transition year pupils listed as their main reason that they believe young people are attracted to drugs because their friends are, to 'show off' and to be 'cool and glamorous'. This reason, plus the 'desire to experiment' are somewhat innate to this age group but also harder to control by parents and significant adults.

"Thus, interventions such as peer-led, discussion-based initiatives need to be strongly considered at both school and youth group level. The nurturance of positive peer role models and leaders is of critical importance. Equally, early career guidance is very important to address their third most prominent reason of 'being disillusioned', where 16 per cent of students stated that they had 'no goals and no purpose in life'.

Senator Healy Eames criticised views that easy availability was behind drug and alcohol use in teenagers and urged those in office to take action on the findings of the study.

"The survey also threw up other interesting findings, such as that cost and availability are not major factors in attracting transition students to drugs and alcohol. Only two per cent of respondents said that easy availability was the reason behind their attractiveness to drugs and this only rose slightly to five per cent when referring to alcohol.

"This survey should contribute to the gap in information amongst this critical age group, who are now in the highest risk category (15-24 yrs) for those who have used drugs over the last year. I now want to see this information acted upon with achievable policies put in place to address this massive problem."

Comments (0) »

Show/Hide comment form

Name

Email

Title

Comment

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment