Violence Exposure and Drug Use

1
Violence Exposure and Drug Use

• Luciana Ramos-Lira

Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría Ramón de la
Fuente, Mexico City, Mexico.
2

• Violent experiences have been found as an
  important factor related with drug involvement,
  particularly when these experiences occur during
  childhood or adolescence

3

• The literature also indicates that severity and
  the type of violence exposure may be directly
  associated with drug involvement

4

• A study with a US nationally representative
  sample of youth found that those who had
  experienced either physical or sexual abuse were
  twice as likely as their non-victimized peers to
  report past-year drug use or dependence
  (Kilpatrick et al., 2000)

5

• In Mexico, a study in a nationally representative
  sample of students showed that to be a victim of
  sexual abuse was associated with the use of drugs
  (Ramos-Lira et al., 1998)

6

• Research has shown that epidemiological
  differences exist between different types of
  violence such as sex and age (National Academy of
  Assistance to Victims, 2002 Medina-Mora et al.,
  to be published WHO, 2002)

7

• There exists the possibility that adolescents
  exposed to different types of violence initiate
  drug use early and/or report greater amount of
  illicit drug use

8

• Moreover, the type of outcome may be dependent
  upon the particular type of victimization
  experienced

9

• To begin to explore these issues, we studied the
  association between exposure to violence, and
  actual drug use of mariguana, cocaine and
  inhalants among urban middle schools students
  living in Mexico City (Wagner et al., 2002).

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• Also, we included the opportunities to use drugs,
  -such as marijuana, inhalants and cocaine- in
  this study.

11

• Students who had been victimized were five times
  more likely to have had an opportunity to use
  drugs, compared to those who had not been
  victimized
• Males, compared to females, were more likely to
  have used drugs

12

• Students who were victimized were three times
  more likely to have used drugs
• However, no association between victimization
  and drug use was found, once exposure to
  opportunities to use drugs was taken into
  consideration

13

• Although we found an association between violence
  victimization and drug use we do not know a lot
  about the mechanisms that relate them, including
  the role of PTSD

14

• Moreover, it also is very important to
  understand, why some youth that has been exposed
  to violence and have had drug exposure
  opportunities do not use drugs

15

• Given that men and women have different positions
  in the Mexican an US societies, as well as
  male-female differences in drug and violence
  involvement, it is important to consider this
  issue

16

• Cultural beliefs in terms of gender
  relationships, including family, marriage, and
  motherhood are very important to understand the
  situation of Mexican women and men

17

• Particularly important are the conceptions of
  masculinity and femininity constructed on the
  basis of family roles such as mother and son,
  brothers and sisters, and the idea of masculine
  superiority. These imply unequal relations
  between sexes.

18

• Women must be morally superior. The ennoblement
  of female chastity has been labeled as
  marianismo, and has been considered the
  counterpart of machismo.

19

• The concepts are complementary aspects of gender
  machismo represents the male ideology and
  masculinity and marianismo, through the cult of
  the virgin, represents the feminine counterpart
  (Melhus, 1990).

20

• The principle of male superiority assumes beliefs
  such as males are more intelligent and stronger
  than women in both physical and emotional
  aspects, and that women must be obedient

21

• Male that sustain this principle of superiority
  and internalize it as a part of its masculinity
  can be more likely to get involved in risky
  behaviors such as perpetration of violence,
  unprotected sex and use of drugs

22

• Some studies have shown that Latinos hold more
  traditional attitudes toward women
• Also, Mexicans and Mexican-Americans have been
  found more conservative and sustain more rigid
  expectations about gender roles than other groups

23

• One important reason to study Mexican, Mexican
  immigrants and Mexican-American is the specific
  link between the United States and Mexico

24

• It is estimated that Mexicans account for 54 of
  regional immigrants, followed by Cubans,
  Dominicans and Salvadorans and that family
  remittances have exceeded twenty-three thousand
  million dollars, playing a key macroeconomic role
  in countries such as Mexico

25

• Finally, it is difficult to end violence, and if
  drugs are more and more available and youth are
  more exposed to them, we should find out factors
  to help them to cope in less maladaptative ways
  with an increasingly complex world in culturally
  adapted interventions