Abstract
Substance abuse remains a significant issue in South Africa, particularly among adolescents. Research indicates that substance abuse rates in South Africa are twice as high as the global average. While the South African government has implemented various national acts and policies to address this issue, these initiatives often adopt a top-down approach, neglecting the perspectives of the adolescents they aim to protect. This qualitative study sought to fill that gap by exploring adolescents' perceptions of the current school-based substance abuse prevention and management framework. The study was designed as a phenomenological study. The Modified Social Stress Model was used as a theoretical framework in this study better to understand adolescents’ perceptions of risk and protective factors. In this study, I adopted interpretivism as a research paradigm. Purposive sampling was used to recruit participants. Six adolescents volunteered to participate in the study. The participants attended CAPS curriculum schools in southern Johannesburg. They were in grades ranging from 8 to 12. They were aged from 14 to 19 years old. Semi-structured interviews and collage creations were used to co-generate data. The data were processed through thematic data analysis. Firstly, the data were coded. Specifically, open and axial coding of data occurred. The codes were grouped to develop categories. Themes were developed based on the developed categories. These broad themes contained sub-themes too. Two key findings emerged from the data, namely, risks predisposing adolescents to substance abuse and protective resources. The findings clearly show that there are personal and socioecological risks that predispose young people to substance abuse. Furthermore, the findings suggest that there are personal and socioecological protective resources that may interact with substance abuse risks and mitigate the impact thereof. The findings offer insights into
IV
adolescents' perceptions of the effectiveness of current school-based prevention models. These findings have implications for theory, research and practice. Based on these findings, useful recommendations were made to improve substance abuse prevention and management interventions in schools.