COMBINING CULTURAL, SOCIAL AND PERSONALITY-TRAIT VARIABLES AS PREDICTORS FOR DRUG-USE AMONG ADOLESCENTS IN ZIMBABWE

A classroom survey among 3061 secondary school students in four provin ces in Zimbabwe was conducted in 1994. This paper presents analyses oi the relationship between a set of predictors including personality tr ait, social and cultural variables and drug use. A two-stage sampling strategy distinguished between four different socio cultural groups. M ultiple regression was applied to analyse the impact of sensation-seek ing, addictive behaviour of significant others, and Global and Local c ultural orientation on drug use, controlling for age, gender and socio -cultural sub-group. The model explained 29.7% of the variance in the dependent drug use variable and the two cultural orientation variables were found to contribute significantly in addition to the personality trait and the social variables. (C) 1997 The Association for Professi onals in Services for Adolescents.