Adolescents’ subjectivity at stake in preventive programs against alcohol and tobacco use
In France, despite recent changes in legislations about alcohol and tobacco (sale is now prohibited under 18 instead of 16) and major investments in prevention programs targeting minors, the adolescents’ use of these substances remains stable. In order to understand this phenomenon, the present study aimed at apprehending the subjective feelings of adolescents, users and non users, about legislations and preventive programs. Focus groups and individual interviews with 57 adolescents aged between 12 and 17 have been conducted in a French region identified as one of France’s biggest consumers. Content analysis relied on the phenomenological approach and highlighted that “knowledge” derived from various types of formal preventive programs does exist in the adolescent mind but is also connected with other kinds of representations. Those representations came from direct and emotional experiences and are given more weight than knowledge derived from prevention. That produces several “iatrogenic effects” of the prevention against alcohol abuse. A paradox in the adolescents’ discourses was underlined, as they admit the importance of the laws yet feel that laws are meant to be broken. These results raise the question of the nature and effects of the psychological processes activated during prevention programs.