Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey (SALSUS): national overview 2018

Risk Factors

Risk Factors: School Variables

Overall, the more engaged a pupil is with school (e.g. if they like it or if they haven’t been excluded etc.) the less likely they are to use substances.

Figure 22: School variables associated with substance use, among both age groups (2018)

The relationship between feeling pressure from schoolwork and smoking, drinking or drugs use was more complex. For example, both those who feel pressure ‘a lot’ and those who feel pressure ‘never’ were more likely to have used drugs in the last month.

Figure 23: Proportion of pupils using drugs in the last month by how often they feel strained or pressured by the schoolwork they have to do (2018)

1 Based on the Goodman Strengths & Difficulties Questionnaire and the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale. Further information is in the Technical Report and http://www.sdqinfo.org/ and http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/med/research/platform/wemwbs/

Figure 24: Proportion of 15 year old pupils who had drunk in the last week by amount of own cash to spend per week (2018)

Risk Factors: Money to Spend

The more money a pupil had a week to spend, the more likely they were to have used substances. The relationship was particularly strong for alcohol. Those with more than £30 a week to spend were twice as likely to have drunk in the last week than those with nothing. 

Risk Factors: Family Variables

In general, pupils who were closer to their families were less likely to use substances. 

Figure 25: Family variables associated with substance use, among both age groups (2018)

Risk Factors: Deprivation

Living in a deprived area (as measured by SIMD²) was associated with higher levels of regular smoking and drug use in 15 year olds. But area deprivation was not linked with drinking for this age group.

Among 13 year olds, area deprivation was associated with regular drinking and smoking, but not drug use prevalence.

Figure 26: Proportion of 15 year olds who were regular smokers, by SIMD band (2015)

2 Area deprivation was assessed using the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) based on postcodes of respondents and postcodes of the schools of participating pupils. Further information on SIMD can be found at http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/SIMD