Abstract
In Bangladesh, drug addiction is a chronic condition and a social problem. The nation’s
youth, the nation’s future is descending into the abyss. This cross-sectional mixed
method research was done among the teenagers who staying in selected shelter home of
Bangladesh to find the causes, source and assess the level of knowledge about drug
abuse among drug addicted teenagers before they take the drugs. The study period was
from January 2022 to November 2022. The convenient sampling method was followed
for data collection. A total of 187 substance users in different shelter homes of Dhaka
and Mymensingh were taken following the defined selection criteria. Snowball
approach utilized for the key informant interview. 30 parents of adolescent children
were taken for KII. 6 key persons were chosen for the Focus group discussion based on
their profession and relevance to the subject of interest. Research instrument was
combination of structured and unstructured questionnaire based on objective. Based on
survey method, data was collected by face to face interview through questionnaire, FGD
and KII. Knowledge score was measured by Likert scale which were executed by IBM
SPSS statics 26.0 and analyzed. Result showed that majority 41.2% were in the age
group 17-18 years, 73.3% were studied in college and 80.2% live in town while 19.8%
live in village. Regarding knowledge of drug abuse, harmful effects, social impact,
adverse effects on education and prevention majority had poor knowledge. From the key
informant interview it can be derived that most of the parents think that peer pressure
was the probable reason for taking drugs, not being able to discuss with others about
children’s drug abuse was a huge barrier from acquiring knowledge, school curriculum
should contain knowledge about drug prevention and secondary school is the best time
for gaining knowledge. In FGD most of the participants opined that lack of social
recreation activities and peer pressure are the main cause of drug addiction. They also
opined that talking with the children about drug abuse is necessary and policy making
and law enforcement agency should take the best measures to prevent drug abuse.
Comparison of knowledge, attributes related to drug abuse among urban and rural
respondents both groups have statistically significant difference except knowledge of
symptoms of drug use where no significant difference between two groups. Thus, the
findings revealed that teenagers and their parent’s knowledge regarding different sides
of drug abuse is poor. Finally, the utility of findings was discussed concerning future
research and to intervention and prevention strategies.
Key words: Drug abuse, knowledge, teenagers, family, parent-child relationship.