Adolescent drug use in Zimbabwe assessed by their teachers

To obtain secondary school teachers' assessment of adolescent drug use in Zimbabwe. Secondly, to compare this assessment with some of the results from student drug use surveys undertaken in 1990 and 1994.

Cross sectional.

17 secondary schools in Harare, Mashonaland East and West and Matabeleland North Provinces (including Bulawayo).

442 secondary school teachers, of whom half were males.

Teachers' assessment of how serious a problem adolescent drug use is in Zimbabwe in general and at the teachers' own school. Secondly, whether adolescent drug use is currently on the increase or decrease.

The teachers assessed alcohol use as the most serious drug problem among secondary school students in Zimbabwe, followed in descending order by cannabis, tobacco, inhalants and other drugs. Drug use was considered less serious at the teachers' own school as compared to the assessment of the general situation. Student drug use is largely stable or increasing moderately. Alcohol appears to be increasing the most. Although partly corresponding with previous studies, the situation was assessed as more serious than what appeared from the student drug use surveys in 1990 and 1994. The largest gap between teachers' assessment and students' self-reported drug use was found for cannabis and inhalants.

The study among teachers concur to some extent with results from previous studies among students. There are, however, variations in the assessment of drug use among secondary school students that do not correspond completely with the picture drawn by previous student surveys. It is argued that some of the variation in the assessment may in part be explained by sociocultural and normative differences between different sociocultural segments of Zimbabwean society.