A qualitative study to understand drivers of psychoactive substance use among Nepalese youth

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0259021
• Publication Date: 2021-11-05T17:30:51Z
• Authors: Tulsi Ram Bhandari; Bhushan Khatiwada; Bibika Rajbhandari; Amy Bestman; Sabuj Kanti Mistry; Binod Rayamajhee; Lal B. Rawal; Uday Narayan Yadav
• Keywords: Thematic Analysis; Psychoactive substance; Peer pressure

Background Psychoactive substance use among youth is an emerging public health issue in Nepal. This exploratory study aimed to better understand the drivers of psychoactive Nepalese Rupandehi district Materials and methods used a qualitative approach for data collection. Both in-depth interviews (IDI, seven participants) focus group discussions (FGD, 13 were conducted participants who self-reported as users or had history use. Participants IDI aged between 11 24 years 18 35 old FGDs. Semi-structured interview guides prepared separately IDIs FDGs. Interviews Nepali language audio recorded, which there transcribed translated into English coding analyses. In addition, notes taken by two research assistants. An inductive thematic analysis was analyze data. Results identified range substances youths. Themes included (i) socio-cultural factors, (ii) individual (iii) academic environment, (iv) physical environment (v) influence media. The factors categorized sub-themes family relationships, ethnic identity lack social acceptance. Individual peer pressure, stress relief coping with financial challenges. Accessibility availability surrounding monitoring reinforcement rules/ law regulations other this cohort. Conclusion Our several important Future works are anticipated further explore initiation support design interventions that address these risk reduce prevent subsequent harms.