BACKGROUND: Cannabis is a widely used psychoactive substance among schoolchildren. It reduces the brain’s learning capacity, is associated with early school leaving and lower educational level in adulthood. The objective was to assess determinants of Cannabis smoking among adolescents in Denmark. Associations between patent education, subjective socioeconomic position, peers smoking Cannabis, family pattern and Cannabis smoking were estimated.
METHOD: The study was based on multiple logistic regression analyses of data from The European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs.
RESULTS: Broken family pattern and peer Cannabis smoking were associated with adolescent Cannabis smoking. Neither parental educational level nor the adolescent’s subjective socioeconomic position was found to be associated with frequent Cannabis smoking.
CONCLUSION: Frequent Cannabis smoking among ninth graders is strongly associated with peers smoking Cannabis and living with noncohabitating parents. Thus in systematic intervention programs, it may be purposeful to pay special attention to young people from non-intact families and intervene in the environments where adolescents socialize.
