Risky Behaviours of Middle School Students in Vlore

Introduction: Risky behaviors are a group of behaviors that affect the mental, physical and social health of children. As the 14-15 age group is in a period of transition between childhood and adolescence, they are more vulnerable to harmful behaviors as their personality is not yet fully formed. Purpose of the Study: Evaluation of risky behavior, namely smoking, consuming alcohol, and marijuana in individual classes 7, 8, and 9th in the public schools of the city of Vlora. Materials And Methods: This is a cross-sectional study that was attended by 390 students of 9 - year schools in the city of Vlora aged 13-16 years. Data collection was performed through the use of a self-administered questionnaire. Results: After processing the data, it turned out that 64% had tried smoking at least once in their lives, mainly at the age of 13-14, and it was women who had experienced smoking the fastest. Meanwhile, 89.1% of participants reported having used alcohol at least once. It was men who referred to alcohol use and the initial age of alcohol consumption is 11-12 years (58%). Only 0.6% of participants reported having tried marijuana and the initial age when using it was 11-12 years old. Conclusions: Significantly influencing factors in tobacco use include curiosity (P = 0.011), smoking by society (P = 0.0001), the idea that smoking relieves stress (P = 0.002), the opinion that smoking quenches appetite and weakens (P = 0.009), parental smoking (P = 0.015), smoking as a form of parental rebellion (P = 0.03), smoking as a form of breaking daily routine (P = 0.001) as well as smoking helps in socialization (P = 0.04). Society is a very strong influence on the use of alcoholic beverages (P <0.05). All mothers who are non-casual users of tobacco and alcoholic beverages are likely to become casual users of marijuana, so try it but not use it regularly.

lung capacity of 10% less compared to peers who have not smoked [3]. In addition to smoking and alcohol use constitutes problematic behavior in adolescents. The preferred time to drink alcoholic beverages is when they associate with each other [4]. Studies have shown that those who start using alcohol in significant doses during adolescence tend to become regular users, develop alcohol addiction, have mental health problems, lower learning outcomes, and a greater risk of getting involved. in crimes in later years [5].
Marijuana use is also steadily increasing among young people.
Drug use is often influenced by social pressure in adolescence [6]. Factors influencing the use of harmful substances to health in adolescence are many such as individual characteristics [7]; mental health and neurological development [7][8][9]; genetic changes [10]; family support [11]; education [11; a very influential factor is the influence of peers [12]; physical and emotional abuse of children [13]; etc.

Aim of the Study
Evaluation of risky behaviors, namely smoking, consumption of alcoholic beverages, and marijuana, in individuals of 7 th , 8 th and 9 th grades, in public schools in the city of Vlora.

Materials and Methods
This is a cross-sectional study, conducted during the period March-May 2019. This study was attended by 3,60 students of 7 th , 8 th and 9 th grades of 9-year schools in the city of Vlora, Albania. Since the purpose of this paper is to assess risky behaviors in the age group 13-16 years, students of 7th, 8th and 9th grades were interviewed, in which you can find individuals of this age group. A total of 360 students were included in the study. The data of this paper were collected through a self-administered questionnaire. The design of the questionnaire was based on standardized questionnaires about risky behaviors in these age groups. The questionnaire which was taken as a reference can be mentioned the Youth Risk Behavior Questionnaire, which has free access. From this questionnaire were taken questions that have to do with determining the frequency and amount of smoking, alcohol, or marijuana. Questions from the Youth Tobacco Questionnaire or the GYTS Core Questionnaire were also used. Questions were taken from the above questionnaires which are thought to fit the Albanian society.
a) The first part of the questionnaire. Includes questions where information is obtained about: age, gender, the amount of money a student spends during the week.

Ethical Considerations
To carry out this study was provided ethical permission from the Faculty of Health addressed to the Vlora Regional Education Directorate to allow the realization of this study.

Results of the Study
The average age of the interviewed youth is X = 14.5 years.  (Tables 2-5).

Graph 1:
The graph above summarizes the lifetime frequency of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use of the interviewed students (casual users).
Graph 2: Shows the use of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana during the last month.     During the 30 clits of funclit how many times did you smoke?

Gender
.472 .002 360 How many cape cigarettes did you smoke per day during these last 30 days? .419 .001

360
The following tables provide an estimate of the relationship between gender and the frequency and quantity of cigarettes consumed. We see that this relationship is not accidental but has a significant character. So, it is men who smoke more frequently, and even consume larger amounts of cigarettes per day compared to women, respectively (P = 0.002 and P = 0.001). In the following descriptive table, obtained through crosstabulation and Pearson Coefficient estimation, we see the impact of the factors mentioned above on tobacco consumption. We see that curiosity is a significant influencing factor, so young people who smoke are significantly and not randomly influenced by curiosity, P = 0.011. There is a strong significant relationship between tobacco consumption by society and its consumption, as P = 0.0003, showing the strong influence of society on this behavior. Also, significant influences on smoking are young people's perceptions that smoking relieves stress (P = 0.002) or smoking quenches appetite and helps you lose weight (P = 0.009). Also, the thoughts that smoking is a form of rebellion or a way to break the routine, significantly affect the frequency of smoking in the interviewed ages (respectively P = 0.03 and P = 0.001) Children whose parents smoke are more likely to smoke (P = 0.015) (Tables 6&7).  Most of the respondents, 58%, consumed alcohol for the first time when they were 11-12 years old, 14% at the age of 13-14 years, 13% consumed alcohol for the first time at the age of 9-10 years, about 3% have tried alcohol when they were younger than 8 years old and 11% say they have never drunk alcohol in their lifetime ( consume alcohol because they want to adapt to society (Table 9).
In the table above we see that the only factor that significantly affects alcohol consumption is the need to adapt to society, as P <0.05. It has a positive impact on society on alcohol consumption throughout life (P = 0.003), it also has a significant positive impact on alcohol consumption over the last 30 days.       Also, many of the young people who smoke think that smoking cigarettes helps you lose weight or smoking helps you socialize, so you can have a lot of friends (P = 0.009 and P = 0.040). In terms of alcohol consumption, the only significant influencing factor is again the influence of society, so young people consume alcohol as they seek to adapt to their society. All mothers who are non-casual users of tobacco and alcoholic beverages are likely to become casual users of marijuana, so try it but not use it regularly.