What are the behaviours that lead young people to put their health at risk?

Thanks to the Peer to Peer Players project, coordinated by CESIE in collaboration with the Association Identità Sviluppo Integrazione (I.S.I.) Onlus and the Department of Psychological, Pedagogical and Training Sciences of the Università degli Studi di Palermo, a research was carried out to collect data on the knowledge and behaviours of young people regarding the use of the web, the visit to dangerous sites and the use of psychoactive substances harmful to health.

A questionnaire was administered to a sample of 997 students aged 16 on average, belonging to two secondary schools in the historical centre of Palermo, the Istituto Magistrale Statale "Regina Margherita" and the Liceo Scientifico Statale "Benedetto Croce". The questionnaire examined the lifestyle of the subjects and specifically their socio-demographic characteristics, the use of the Internet, smartphones, social networks and dark web, the use of drugs, their personal ecological resources, the level of positive development through the detection of specific skills, risk behaviours etc.

The underlying idea behind the research is that addiction to the Internet and new devices and tools related to it can result in a risk factor for non-occasional and intentional access to the "dark web", which increases the likelihood of buying and using new drugs in this dark virtual space. Such addiction is thought to be related with an increased use of new drugs and risk behaviours in general, but also with low personal and ecological resources and low psychosocial skills. On the contrary, a conscious use of the internet and its derivatives is thought to be closely related to proper personal and ecological resources, a positive development and a low level of risk behaviour, including the use of drugs. This doesn't mean that there is no awareness of the world of psychoactive substances: it means that good use is made, in terms of physical and mental health, of the information acquired.

The results are being analysed and elaborated by the researchers of the Department of Psychological, Pedagogy and Training Sciences of the Università degli Studi di Palermo: they will be used to create a "map of risks" in order to produce useful recommendations for the protection of the psycho-physical health of young people. It will also be the starting point for the creation of the game App included in the project.

For the creation of the game app, an ideas contest will be launched. It will be open to all the secondary school students of the city of Palermo. Only two students will be the winners of the contest, and each of them will be awarded a tablet and their ideas will be used by the expert developers for the creation of a game designed to promote the positive use of the web and responsible behaviour.

The Peer to Peer Players project aims at promoting the well-being of young people and the conscious use of the web, improving their skills in supporting their peers, orienting them towards conscious and responsible choices. The project includes other activities apart from the research: a group of young students will put at disposal of their peers the skills acquired through a training course, in order to protect the psycho-physical well-being of their schoolmates.