Fortalezas internas y externas de adolescentes que no consumen alcohol

Abstract

Introduction: alcohol consumption in Mexican adolescents is a public health problem, so research efforts should focus on prevention. This study is based on Benson's model of assets (2007), which mention that young people have individual and contextual resources that promote positive development and limit their involvement in risk behavior. Objective: to analyze differences in internal and external assets in high school students with different levels of alcohol consumption. Method: participants were 990 students from public secondary schools in Mexico City, 52.1% female and 47.9% male, the mean age of participants was 13.6 years. Seven internal and seven external assets were evaluated. Results: 53.9% of the participants never consumed alcohol, 28.3% had consumed but never or only once they had abused and 17.8% reported abusing consumption in the last month. Men and women who have not consumed alcohol reported significantly higher scores on internal assets. In the case of external assets, young people who have not consumed alcohol also scored significantly higher in all assets, except for healthy friends in both men and women and support and supervision of the father in men. Discussion and conclusions: the results contribute to the explanation of alcohol consumption among young people and provide elements for the design of interventions to emphasize the assets that should be promoted to prevent young people from drinking alcohol at an early age.