The Epidemiological Factors of Choking Games among Adolescents in Southern Taiwan

Kun-Hua Lee ； Chun-Ming Ko

《臨床心理學刊》 9卷2期 (2015/12) Pp. 23-24

https://doi.org/10.6550/ACP.0902.016

摘要

Introduction: Choking game (抓茫) is defined as ＂self-strangulation or strangulation by another person with the hands or a noose to achieve a brief euphoric state caused by cerebral hypoxia＂ (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2008). In Taiwan, choking game is popular among adolescents, despite it is ignored by the schools and parents. Many younger adolescents were taught and experienced the game by senior students. Evidences indicated that suffocation could be caused by choking game. However, little study was to examine the epidemiological factors of choking game in Taiwan. This preliminary study was to examine the psychosocial and epidemiological factors of choking game among adolescents in order to develop more efficacious intervention of choking game. Method: From January to December 2012, 407 adolescents were recruited in this study. All of them were delinquent due to hold illicit drug or conduct behaviors (mean of age = 16.05 years, SD = 1.73 years; mean of educational year = 9.41 years, SD = 1.18 years, the averaged age at first time of using illicit drugs = 15.04 years, SD = 1.53 years). All of them were asked to answer the personal information, the attitudes of chocking game and impulsivity after informed consent. Descriptive analyses were to examine the distributions of demographic data. Χ^2 test was to examine the effects of nominal variables and t-test was to examine the effect of impulsivity between people with and without playing choking game. Significant level was set at .05. Results: The lifetime prevalence of choking game was 18.9%. There was no significant difference of academic performance between people with and without choking game (χ^2 = 6.56, p ＞ .05). Compared to people without choking game, 53.2% of people with choking game reported to ever use ketamine in their lifetime (χ^2 = 4.70, p ＜ .05). Besides, there was no significant difference of impulsivity between people with- and without- choking game (t = -1.64, p ＞ .05). Regarding to positive outcome expectancy, higher proportion of people with choking game reported ＂curiosity＂ (χ^2 = 40.37, p ＜ .05), ＂funny＂ (χ^2 = 15.87, p ＜ .05) than those without choking game. Discussion and Conclusions: Our results provided a higher prevalence of choking game among adolescents, and proved this game may play as an important factor to predict use of ketamine. Besides, further study should examine the relationship between illicit drug use and ketamine use, in the meantime, these expectancies of choking game should be considered in further intervention.