ILLEGAL DRUGS USE BY SCHOOL-CHILDREN IN B ELGIUM - NORTH-SOUTH DIFFERENCES

The study << Health Behaviour of Youngsters >> regularly provides comp arative data on health behaviour and related lifestyle of pupils from 11 to 18 years old. This study is based on repeated surveys among rand omised representative samples of pupils, following the international s tandardised protocol from the WHO cross-national survey <<Health Behav iour in School-aged Children>>. In Belgium, results from the 1990 surv ey (sample=3528) show differences in illegal drugs use between the Sou th (French-speaking) and the North (Flemish-speaking). For example, am ong the 17 year olds, 9.8 % of the French-speaking pupils and 5.5 % of the Flemish-speaking have already tried illegal drug(s) and in the sa me age groups, 2.9 % and 1.5 %, respectively declare to be regular use rs. The first hypotheses concerning those differences take into accoun t the socio-economic and cultural environment as well as methodologica l problems inherent to these surveys.