The Use of Tobacco and Marijuana with School Bonding: A Longitudinal Analysis from the Perspective of Social Control

Comparative data from Latin American countries in 2006 locates Chile among the countries with the highest rates of tobacco consumption in the last month throughout various ages. Additionally, Chile has shown the highest rate of marijuana consumption within South America during the last decade, and consumption among Chilean students has grown in the last years related to an important decrease in risk perception on marijuana use.

This research analyzes the pattern taken by the relation between school bonding and the involvement with behaviors that usually are considered as risky, like substances use, from a perspective based on social control applied specifically in the Chilean context. The previous descriptive analysis shows i) an increasing prevalence of truancy as students get older, ii) a reduction of students happiness while in school, iii) a decrease in the importance of good grades, and iv) reducing the importance that students connect to the generation of positive opinion on teachers. Besides, truancy more than duplicates the odds of tobacco and marijuana consumption in the upcoming years. While the students happiness in school, the importance of good grades and the relevance assigned by students in the generation of a good impression on teachers reduce the odds.

The analysis was based on a panel data from a longitudinal study of tobacco, alcohol and drugs throughout school populations, made by The Pontifical Catholic University. They collected information from variables related to family, school, pairs and substance use of Chilean students in seventh grade during 2008 (N=4.387) from townships with a population over 30,000 across the metropolitan región The students were annually re-interviewed until 2011.