Introduction:

The prevention of drug use in the school setting is a priority in the national drug demand reduction policy as an essential element to guide decision-making.

Objective:

To determine the perceived health, self-efficacy and attitude towards drug use in children aged 8 to 12 years who attend schools in a town in Bogotá.

Method:

A descriptive quantitative research was carried out on 467 boys and girls aged 8 to 12 from six schools in a town in Bogotá. A sociodemographic questionnaire, Albert Bandura's Perceived Self-Efficacy Instrument, the Kidscreen Instrument 27 and the questionnaire on attitude towards drug use were applied.

Results:

Contact with cigarettes and alcohol is evident from the age of 8 with significant differences according to age and sex. Boys seem to come first into contact with alcohol, while girls do so with cigarettes. Those who have had contact with alcohol and tobacco reported lower levels of self-efficacy and perceived health.

Conclusion:

Contact with alcohol and tobacco occurs at early ages, with a significant proportion of alcohol consumption, sometime in life, between 8 and 12 years old, which makes it necessary to expand the research on consumption in this age group from a gender perspective. Drug use prevention programs must be articulated in a transversal way with the health, education and family sectors, so that parents and teachers are involved in them.

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