Acoso escolar y consumo de drogas en estudiantes de educación media básica

the increase in bullying practices and associated violence expressions requires the study of its possible interaction with drug abuse in order to develop appropriate prevention alternatives. Objective: to clarify the association between bullying and drug abuse. Method: a cross-sectional study was conducted, with a non-probabilistic sample of 1,025 junior high school students, 55.3% men and 44.7% women, between 11 and 17 years old. Self-test of Cisneros and Peer Aggression Test for Teenagers were applied, comparing four groups by an ANOVA test (no substance users, tobacco users, alcohol users, and illegal drug users), and estimating odds ratios, by multinomial logistic regression. Results: significant differences between groups of users and non-users were detected, in terms of violence, physical aggression, and threatening; illicit drug users registered higher scores of violence. Being victim of some types of bullying, like intimidation and abuse, reduces the risk of drug abuse, meanwhile, being a victim of physical violence, violently reacting, and perform deviant behavior increase this risk. Discussion and conclusions: despite the evidence of a direct association between violence and drug abuse, some findings of this study indicate that being victim of bullying may reduce the risk of substance use, requiring further research.