Actitudes y disposición personal ante el consumo y exposición a sustancias en adolescentes del Ecuador

Objectives. Identify the existence of statistically significant differences by sex in attitudes, predisposition to substances and exposure to alcohol, tobacco and other drugs; and know the relationship between the variables in mention. Design. Quantitative, descriptive, correlational and comparative study by sex with the use of Self-Report of Consumption of Psychoactive Substances, the Questionnaire of attitudes toward alcohol and illegal drugs and the scale of exposure to substances. Participants. 502 teenagers, men and women belonging to four schools in Ambato city, students between the 1st and 3rd year of high school. Results. Differences were found by sex (p <0.05) with greater presence in men in the attitudes towards consumption t= -2.07 and the disposition t= -2.00; As in the exposure to alcohol X²= 11.74; tobacco X²= 10.41; and to cannabis X²= 8.59. Attitudes and personal disposition towards consumption are correlated with exposure to tobacco T= -,23 and T= - ,20; and to cannabis T= -,334 and T= -,25 respectively. Conclusion. Cognitive aspects of substances are significantly associated with behaviors of exposure to tobacco and cannabis especially.