Psychological meaning that high school students in Mexico City attribute to the concept of "drugs"

Abstract

The psychological meaning that secondary school teenagers gave to the concept “drug” was analyzed through the use of the Natural Semantic Networks Technique. The representation and conceptual organization of the networks generated by students was compared by grade and gender. 113 students from 7th, 8th and 9th grades, between the ages of 10 to 15 years participated in the study. Results indicated differences in the network size and conceptual density, but similarities in terms of the words used and the semantic weight assigned to them. Different semantic categories related to knowledge about drugs, risks related to its use, and protection factors were identified. According to the results obtained, it can be concluded that students related the meaning of the concept “drug” mainly to risk factors, the usefulness of the technique to obtain psychological meaning was confirmed.