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R IS YOUR FRIEND
ADDICTIVE SUBSTANCES:
PEER EDUCATION
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Peer education is commonly used around the world and in
Turkey for issues like the fight against HIV and AIDS, sexu-
al health and substance abuse. In peer education, the main
aim is behavioral change rather than information sharing.
Researches reveal that when adolescents share their
problems with their peers, they feel relief. İçmeli stresses
that young people believe that their peers understand
their feelings better. "In the adolescence period, young
people develop empathy with their peers and are affected
by them because of their attitudes towards authority.
They start spending more time with their peer groups and
seeing themselves a part of these groups. Social needs
such as belonging, approval, and attachment intensify
during adolescence, and this may cause a young indivi-
dual to go under control of his/her peer group. The whole
group undergoes a change in terms of knowledge, atti-
tude, belief or behavior. In peer education, young people
can talk and gain information about sexual topics more
comfortably. Understanding yourself and the opposite
sex anatomically which is considered as a private issue
especially in our country is effective not only in preven-
ting pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases but
also in overcoming school or family problems. It also has a
huge impact on preventing the use of addictive substan-
ces. Young people who participate in peer education find
themselves in a comfortable environment where they
can explain how and why they started using substances,
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YEŞiLAY
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October-November-December 2015