Medicine Use and Mental Health in Japanese Adolescents: The Impact of the Rebelliousness Phase

Abstract

Background: Global trends in self-medication indicate that students begin to use medicines in junior high school, and without appropriate interventions at this time, the problem may worsen in the future.

Objective: There is little research on the relationship between adolescent identity development and perceptions and behaviors related to medicine use. Therefore, in order to fill this gap, this study will investigate how developmental conflicts affect medicine use among Japanese junior high school students.

Methods: In this study, we surveyed junior high school students and their parents about their behaviors related to the use of medicine and their perceptions of whether they considered it important or not, in terms of three aspects: reading the warning labels, adhering to the dose times, and adhering to the dose. In addition, students' "rebelliousness" was measured by a scale we developed, and the WHO-5 was used to assess students' depressive tendencies. As for the parents, their experiences of misuse of medicine were also ascertained.

Results: The results showed that students' perceptions and behaviors toward medicine use were only marginally related to those of their parents. There was a gap between the perceptions and behaviors of both students and parents. Of the three factors on the rebelliousness scale (rebellion, conflict, and relationship), conflict and rebellion were positively correlated with inappropriate use of medicine at the behavioral and cognitive levels. Depressive tendencies were detected in 14.5 % of the students and should be given more attention in the future. Furthermore, the sub-items of the rebelliousness scale, conflict and perception of dose, were significantly correlated with depressive tendencies based on the WHO-5.

Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that perceptions and behaviors of inappropriate medicine use are associated with rebelliousness. They also had an impact on mental health. There is a gap between the behavior and perceptions of both parents and junior high school students, and many of the parents have experienced misuse of medicine. Since parents are the main source of advice for junior high school students when they use medicine, medicine use education and drug abuse prevention education would be more effective if implemented for both parents and students.