[Effect of the war and postwar events on risk behavior in middle-school students]

Risky behaviour of young people is related to their individual features as well as to the influence of parents, dominant friends and social circumstances. This paper presents results of a survey on highschool students risky behaviours (smoking, alcohol and drug abuse, sexual activity) in respect with war events (loss of one or both parents, or of another close relative, moving) and post-war events (loss of job of one or both parents). Five years after the war had ended, 1009 students of the last class of 5 gymnasiums and 4 trade schools (girls 42.22%, boys 57.78%) aged from 15 to 19 years (17.50 +/- 0.70 years) were examined. The students who had moved because of war events consumed alcohol more frequently than those who had not changed the place of living (chi 2-test = 5.34; p < 0.01). Those students who experienced a loss of a parent, or of both parents, or of another close relative for the war reasons, were not found to behave more riskily in respect with smoking (chi 2-test = 0.004; p > 0.05), alcohol (chi 2-test = 0.04; p > 0.05) and drug abuse (chi 2-test = 0.03; p > 0.05), nor sexual activity (chi 2-test = 0.09; p > 0.05). Neither the loss of job of one or both parents had an influence on the risky behaviours (chi 2-test(smoking) = 1.26, p > 0.05; chi 2-test(alchol abuse) = 0.01, p > 0.05; chi 2-test(drug abuse) = 1.26, p > 0.05; chi 2-test(sexual activity) = 2.97, p > 0.05). The results obtained indicate only a partial influence of the war and the post-war events on the risky behaviours in highschool students. The reason for such low influence could be found perhaps in a relatively short duration of those events, or on the special motivations provoked by them.