Methamphetamine Use, Free Time and Boredom Among South African 9th Graders

Over the past decade, methamphetamine (MA) use in Cape Town, South Africa, has increased steadily, making Cape Town one of the regions in the world with the highest prevalence of MA use. In South Africa, MA is a low-cost and easy to access substance in a context with high prevalence of HIV infection, pregnancy, antisocial behaviour, and unstructured and unsupervised free time among adolescents. MA use has devastating effects including, aggression, psychosis, and depression and is associated with interpersonal violence, property damage, breaking and entering, and theft.  In addition, past month MA use is associated with a greater likelihood of reporting being forced to have sex and ever being (or getting someone) pregnant. This is of great concern, particularly for school-going adolescents who are at a vulnerable stage of development. Furthermore, both activity participation and leisure experience were found to be significant predictors of past month MA use in 8^th graders. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine if free time use predicts MA use, and how boredom moderates these relationships in a sample of 9^th grade students in Cape Town.

Data for this study were collected via self-report from 9^th grade adolescents (N=5,139; M_age=17.3; SD_age=.94) in Cape Town. Logistic regression was used to compare non-users with those who reported any MA use in their lifetime. Five free time use variables were included as predictors including the frequency of time spent: with friends, staying after school, doing sports or physical activities, going to parks/community centres, and watching TV or movies. Boredom was included as an interaction term with each free time use variable to determine if boredom moderated the relationship between free time use and MA use. Missing data were imputed.

 Descriptively, 4% of 9^th Graders reported using MA in their lifetime. Logistic regression results indicated the following: as compared to non-lifetime users, 1) males are more likely to have used (OR=2.53), 2) compared to those who never spend time after school to participate in a free time activity, those who spend less than 1 hr/wk are less likely to be lifetime users (OR=0.66) and those who spend 6-10 hrs/wk are more likely to be lifetime users (OR=2.16), and 3) as compared to those who never spend time watching TV/movies, those who spend 6-10 hrs/wk are less likely to be lifetime users (OR=.46). None of the interactions with boredom were significant.

 Findings from this study support the notion that in order to address substance use among school-going adolescents, comprehensive programs with a strong focus on leisure education and which enable young people to make healthy choices during their free time should be implemented.