Part-time work is common among adolescents as the first step toward independence and transitioning to adulthood.¹⁵ Substance abuse is a serious public health issue among part-time working students. ¹³ It is now regarded as a chronic relapsing brain condition that destroys the same neuronal scaffold that allows for self-control and proper decision making.¹³ Thus, prevention, early detection, and intervention are critical in the battle against substance abuse and addiction.^16,17 Substance abuse disorder is a health condition that can be avoided and treated by intensive, multidisciplinary treatments. Treatment proposals must be supported by evidence and scientific research.^18,19 However, studies have scarcely investigated the relationship between substance abuse and the schedule of work.²⁰ Vocational students are the most susceptible to drug use among different youth groups in Egypt.^21,22

In this study, tobacco was the most abused drug in the form of smoking, accounting for 68% of all cases, followed by cannabis (24%), marijuana (16.4%), alcohol (10%), and opioids (6.3%). Our findings were consistent with other research, such as a survey conducted in the United States that reported the highest rate of substance abuse among youth aged 18 to 20 (22.7%) and 21 to 25 (21.5%).²³ Further research showed that the least educated were heavier smokers and drinks more often, these findings show that educational attainment affects substance abuse decisions.²⁴

Our findings were also reliable with those of Rabie et al.,²⁵ who conducted a study on male students in Fayom City and discovered that 75% of them were drug users. According to their findings, the most commonly abused medications were cannabis (40%), tramadol (37%), and benzodiazepine (23%).

The prevalence of opioid abuse was 7.41 percent in a crosssectional sample of 750 students in Zagazig city. Tetrahydrocannabinol (3.9%) was the most common, followed by tramadol (1.9%) and benzodiazepines (0.67%), whereas morphine and barbiturates each had a 0.47% prevalence, The prevalence of smoking was 16.81%, and the prevalence of alcohol abuse was 6%.⁸ The multivariate stepwise logistic regression analyses identified male gender, studying at the secondary school level, smoking tobacco, living with a family member who uses tobacco, and feeling insecure within the family as risk factors for abuse.

Also, Ljubotina and his colleagues,²⁶, screened 2,404 elementary and high school students (total age range, 13-23 years) from Zagreb; 90% of all examinees experimented with alcohol at least once, 80% with tobacco, 39% with marijuana, and nine % with ecstasy.

Another study examined the association between employment and substance abuse among 4800 public high school students in the United States.²⁷ They found white students (37.7%) to be working at an average higher rate than black students (15.4%). Among white males, 38.2% were smokers, 52.5% were alcohol abusers, 35.6% abused marijuana, and 7.7% abused cocaine. Among black males, 13.4% were smokers, 42.0% were alcohol abusers, 23.7% abused marijuana, and 2.1% abuse cocaine. They also found a statistically significant association for males (either white or black) and smoking at different working levels than nonworking males. The same was observed for alcohol and marijuana. The report released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) found that among males, working either full-time or part-time was associated with increased odds of using marijuana only, and being unemployed was associated with using other illicit drugs.²⁸

In this study, students who worked only at night (14.0%) reported the least percentage of smoking and abuse compared to the day only workers (36.2%), and day and night workers (36.0%), they had significantly lower rates of smoking, cannabis, marijuana, alcohol, or opioids abuse. This finding is explained by the fact that night-time labor necessitates extra attention during working hours, leaving only a short free time for those employees to engage in abusive behavior. Night workers had the highest levels of religious devotion, with 57.4% saying they “always pray” and 62.5% saying they fasted for the whole month of Ramadan. They also had the highest rates of “never” experiencing physical or emotional violence in the family. Most of them even stated “none” of their coworkers or associates was abusing drugs or alcohol. This religious devotion, combined with the conduct of family, coworkers, and friends, may have contributed to a reduction in the rate of abuse among them.

Unlike previous researchers,²⁹ who investigated the impact of shift work on drug abuse. The impact of shift-work-related problems on drinking among Japanese male workers aged 35 to 54 years was studied. The report, which included 350-day workers and 72 shift workers, found that night-shift workers with low sleep quality had the highest risk of heavy drinking (17.6%), with a 2.17 chance of heavy drinking (95%CI 1.20-3.93) The age difference between the two samples may be the cause of the discrepancy.

There are many possible explanations for the correlation between employment and increased drug use among adolescents.

First, working teens are more likely to be exposed to people who use tobacco, alcohol, or other substances (e.g., older coworkers). Young people who are exposed to those who use drugs are at a higher risk of early initiation. Students who are more involved in their work form friendships with older colleagues, who in turn initiate them into more adult-like patterns of recreation.^30,31

Second, a high time commitment to work can be viewed as an important symptom of a potentially wide range of psychosocial difficulties, it has been suggested that the relationship between jobs and substance use or other problem behaviors among teenagers could be linked in part to their mental health or school adjustment issues.^32,33

Third, increased disposable income could be to blame for some students’ higher rates of drug abuse among working adolescents. The majority of the money received from teenage part-time jobs was used as a disposable income, according to data from a national survey.³⁴ Previous studies suggested that adolescents who were frequent users of alcohol or other substances could be motivated by financial gain derived from the intensity of work to support their substance use. Since earnings and job intensity have a positive relationship.²⁶ Fourth, the use of alcohol or other drugs can be linked to work-related stress. Research of 10^th and 11^th graders discovered a connection between job stress (e.g., bad working conditions, poor organizational structure, or tension between work and other responsibilities) and the use of alcohol or marijuana.³³

In conclusion, results from this study indicate increased use of substances among vocational students. Another important observation was no positive results of cocaine, amphetamines, barbiturates, or benzodiazepines. A decreasing prevalence for alcohol with an upward increase for cannabis.

Finally, vocational students’ part-time work and substance abuse is a great occupational problem, and we recommend that concerned authorities and planners integrate their efforts, especially in the Menoufia region to look for this problem in this region.

The limitations of the study are that the cross-sectional nature of this study does not allow us to make causal inferences regarding the observed relationship, The lack of a female aspect to the study is a limitation. The co-morbidity of students’ persuasive or aggravating drug use was not investigated.