Habilidades sociais e abuso de drogas em adolescentes

the present article proposes a bibliographic revision on social skills and drug abuse. this article was elaborated from a research in the following databases: pschynfo, web of science, cochrane library, proquest, medline and lilacs, between 1996 and 2006. the used describers were: social skills, social skills training, social competence, assertiveness, adolescents, teenagers, substance abuse, drug abuse, cannabis and marijuana. in the databases in portuguese language we used the terms habilidades sociais, treinamento em habilidades sociais, assertividade, adolescentes, abuso de substancias, drogas and maconha. the studies, the majority of which were in english, pointed the existence of deficits, mainly the difficulty in resisting to drugs and in saying no. it can be concluded that the construction of resistance skills to the offering of drugs, self-efficacy training and the stimulation of decision making capabilities can reduce substance use. few brazilian studies were found approaching this subject.