Representations of the Social Body and Drug Use

*Sándor Bollók¹, Zsuzsa Menczel², István Vingender²

Summary
Aim. In our research we studied the connections between the body culture and drug using behaviour.
Material and Method. An empirical, survey-kind of analysis was carried out; the questionnaire contains a list of questions concerning the use of the body, the habits of body training, the sport career and drug use. A 600-person sample was surveyed. The ages of the students were 17-19 years.
Results. There is a relationship between the importance of appearance and substance use. Smoking and the appearance mean basically the same; it 'assists' the young in social-cultural integration and attachment. The regularity of alcohol consumption habits and the importance of appearance follow the same construction. The use of illegal drugs has an even stronger relation to them. Physical appearance is organized into sharply different models. Smoking is significantly linked to the external and the hygienic models, but negatively. Alcohol consumption is also related to the model of the external gathered factors and drug use does not significantly relate to any of the models, but the correlation with the two mentioned models is also stronger.
Conclusions. Nowadays the social representations of the physical body are strongly linked to drug use habits. Psychoactive drugs have already become part of young people's present general culture of body use and body image. These drugs become in themselves part of the models of the body and body use. Drug consumption is part of the representation of the body.

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