Societal and Organisational Factors of Stress on Students in School

In this paper an attempt is made both to discuss factors of stress in 14‐ to 18‐year‐old teenage students in and out of school and at the same time to point out the adolescent's own subjective perception of some of those factors by means of an empirical investigation. Factors external and internal to school must be seen as standing in a close relation of interaction to each other. The kind and intensity of mental and social stress is explained by combining an ‘objective’ analysis with a ‘subjective’ one. School is looked at both as a system of social order, organisation and interaction, and as a realm of experience and a social environment for students. On the basis of these considerations, the conception of ‘stress’ is discussed in the context of a meta‐theoretical model of the subject who is productively managing his or her reality.     

Educational career and substance use in adolescence

In modern, competitive societies the social organisation of «youth» implies both the chance and risk of (intergenerational) vertical social mobility. It is suggested that it is precisely this basic feature that to a considerable extent gives rise to substance use. In particular the paper aims at analysing the impact of the risk of educational downward mobility as well as some related characteristics. Using LISREL VI, it is shown that this type of educational career pattern, actual or anticipated, substantially contributes to the consumption of legal drugs. Weight is given to an extended analysis of the mode of action involved in the relationship between substance use and the career pattern as well as associated characteristics, respectively. As far as home is concerned, social conflict and associated feelings on the side of the adolescents turn out to be a major ‘mechanism’ through which the observable impact of educational downward mobility can be traced back. Integration into both the cultural system of «legalized» drug use and subcultural contexts as provided by social cliques is a further condition that strongly influences substance use among adolescents.