Illegal drugs use by school children in Belgium: North-South differences

The study << Health Behaviour of Youngsters >> regularly provides comparative data on health behaviour and related lifestyle of pupils from 11 to 18 years old. This study is based on repeated surveys among randomised representative samples of pupils, following the international standardised protocol from the WHO cross-national survey <<Health Behaviour in School-aged Children>>. In Belgium, results from the 1990 survey (sample=3528) show differences in illegal drugs use between the South (French-speaking) and the North (Flemish-speaking). For example, among 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 same age groups, 2.9 % and 1.5 %, respectively declare to be regular users. The first hypotheses concerning those differences take into account the socio-economic and cultural environment as well as methodological problems inherent to these surveys.