The Publication of Survey Report on Tracking Study of Macau Students and Drugs in 2018



“The tracking study of students and drugs in Macau” was an empirical study funded by the Social Work Bureau of Macau Special Administrative Region. The main purpose of the study is to investigate the drug abuse situation of Macau students and to identify the social and personal factors leading to their substance abuse behaviors. The study has been carried out four times, in 2000/2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014 respectively.

 

In 2018, Asian Association for Substance Abuse Research (AASAR) was entrusted by the Social Work Bureau of Macau Special Administrative Region to conduct the follow-up study. Spencer De Li, the president of AASAR and the professor of Department of Sociology in University of Macau, led the research team to implement the survey. The research objects include the students from primary school (grade 5 and 6), middle school, high school as well as college. The study proceeded through several stages: questionnaire design, sampling, questionnaires filling-out, statistical analysis and report writing. In the end, 10079 questionnaires were collected, distributing in 2375 for primary school students at grade 5 and grade 6, 3426 for middle school students, 3014 for high school students, and 1237 for college students.

 

After the data collection, the statistical analysis was conducted though STATA and the investigation report was produced based on the data results. The report exhibits the findings and results into nine chapters. The first chapter is abstract, where summarizes the main content of this study. The second chapter introduces the background, purpose, update and improvement of the research. Research methods are described in the third chapter. Chapter 4 to chapter 8 discuss the results of data analysis, including the distribution of drug abuse of students in Macau, analysis of social structure factors related to substance abuse, education and prevention of drug abuse for students, attitudes and values of drug abuse for students in Macau and relationship between drug abuse and other psychological and behavioral problems. Finally, in Chapter 9, the researchers derive the information from data analysis to provide recommendations for the drug prevention and education among students in Macau.

 

Compared with previous studies, current research not only considerably increased the comprehensiveness and validity of the questionnaire, but also provided more complete data supporting for the Social Work Bureau to improve the existing drug education programs and formulate preferable programs. The survey report was published and released in August 2019. The full contents are available on the official website of the Social Work Bureau of Macau Special Administrative Region (Link: http://www.ias.gov.mo/wp-content/themes/ias/tw/download/Report_2018_190823-2.pdf).