The Behavioral Risks of Today's College Students

In the past 10 to 15 years, the wide prevalence of various forms of negative behavior among young people in college has become one of the main causes of their deteriorating health. Traditionally classified among such forms are the excessive consumption of alcohol, smoking, and narcotics abuse. Issues relating to the protection of students' health in the framework of the educational process in higher education have taken on special urgency for society. The topic of the dissemination and consumption of psychoactive substances among college students and the factors that influence their health has become the object of study by the scientific community as well. A substantial number of studies have come out in recent years relating to these problems. One example is the survey "College Students' Health," conducted by the Social Problems of Health sector of the Institute of Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences, in 2009. A questionnaire survey was carried out in eight cities of the Russian Federation (Moscow, Briansk, Murmansk, Nizhnii Novgorod, Ufa, Ul'ianovsk, Khabarovsk, and Groznyi) and in two cities of Belarus (Minsk and Grodno). A scientific-methodological feature of that sociological survey is the comparative analysis of sample sets in the two allied countries of Russia and Belarus. The purpose of the present article is to analyze the empirical data base of the "College Students' Health" survey reflecting the prevalence of harmful habits among students in higher educational institutions of Russia and Belarus. The article suggests that the lack of an adequate system of antinarcotics education and propaganda and a state system of treatment and rehabilitation for narcotics addicts is leading to the expansion of the black market in narcotics and an increase in demand for them. (Contains 1 note.) [This article was translated by Kim Braithwaite.]