Inhalant use, social support and help-seeking among rural South Texas community youth

Abstract

Little to no attention has been focused on inhalant using youths' social support and help seeking networks however. Since the 1950s, the use of inhalants by inner city Mexican American (M/A) youths has prompted serious attention both within and without larger MIA communities. This self-report study describes the responses of 614 sixth to twelfth grade South Texas students. The results disclose that M/As report lower levels of social support and help seeking than do Anglos. Both inhalant using and non-using youth report high levels of parental support, and both indicate considerable difficulties in talking about their problems to others. Finally, both groups indicate are reluctance, unwillingness or inability to tum to any of eight help sources listed for problems in general, and an even greater reluctance concerning problems with drugs or alcohol. Yet users were more likely than non-users to report greater difficulty discussing their problems and were more likely than non-users to do nothing about their problems, or to tum to none for help.