PloS one · 2026
"They call me a glue kid, but I don't like it": Experiences of glue use among street-connected adolescents in Merauke Regency, Indonesia.
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Irawan Faisal Adi, Efendi Ferry, Rachmawati Praba Diyan
Аннотация
BACKGROUND: Glue-sniffing among street-connected children and adolescents is a neglected public health and social issue with acute toxicity, entrenched stigma, and long-term life-course harms. In Merauke (South Papua), everyday practices, peer dynamics, and social labeling remain under-described.
OBJECTIVE: To explore lived experiences of street-connected children and adolescents who use inhalants in Merauke, focusing on initiation, accessibility, peer processes, harms, return to glue use, and perceived stigma.
METHODS: We conducted an inductive descriptive qualitative study with children and adolescents aged 12-18 years who reported glue use in the prior three months. Participants were recruited via gatekeeper-facilitated snowball sampling until information power indicated sufficiency. Data comprised semi-structured in-depth interviews (audio-recorded) and field notes; brief member checking closed each session and after the analysis. Transcripts were analyzed using inductive content analysis in NVivo 15.
RESULTS: Twenty-two participants (19 male, 3 female) shared narratives; among the nine who recalled their age at initiation, first glue use occurred between 5 and 12 years. Participants reported inhaling commercially available adhesive products. Five categories emerged: (1) Early Exposure, Easy Access, and Peer Influence (Early Initiation, Easy Availability, and coercive invitations); (2) Everyday Glue Use and Its consequences (earmarking daily income for glue, polysubstance patterns, concealment, somatic/perceptual disturbances); (3) Social dynamics and peer support (in group solidarity, ambivalent community/enforcement responses, painful labeling); (4) Returning to the cycle (peer-triggered return, difficulty quitting, and strong attachment to glue); and (5) Hopes and multilevel strategies (age-gated sales and basic-needs support).
CONCLUSIONS: Glue-sniffing in Merauke is sustained by permissive retail environments and peer-mediated cues set against structural deprivation. Effective prevention requires integrated policy, peer, service, and social-protection responses tailored to local contexts.
OBJECTIVE: To explore lived experiences of street-connected children and adolescents who use inhalants in Merauke, focusing on initiation, accessibility, peer processes, harms, return to glue use, and perceived stigma.
METHODS: We conducted an inductive descriptive qualitative study with children and adolescents aged 12-18 years who reported glue use in the prior three months. Participants were recruited via gatekeeper-facilitated snowball sampling until information power indicated sufficiency. Data comprised semi-structured in-depth interviews (audio-recorded) and field notes; brief member checking closed each session and after the analysis. Transcripts were analyzed using inductive content analysis in NVivo 15.
RESULTS: Twenty-two participants (19 male, 3 female) shared narratives; among the nine who recalled their age at initiation, first glue use occurred between 5 and 12 years. Participants reported inhaling commercially available adhesive products. Five categories emerged: (1) Early Exposure, Easy Access, and Peer Influence (Early Initiation, Easy Availability, and coercive invitations); (2) Everyday Glue Use and Its consequences (earmarking daily income for glue, polysubstance patterns, concealment, somatic/perceptual disturbances); (3) Social dynamics and peer support (in group solidarity, ambivalent community/enforcement responses, painful labeling); (4) Returning to the cycle (peer-triggered return, difficulty quitting, and strong attachment to glue); and (5) Hopes and multilevel strategies (age-gated sales and basic-needs support).
CONCLUSIONS: Glue-sniffing in Merauke is sustained by permissive retail environments and peer-mediated cues set against structural deprivation. Effective prevention requires integrated policy, peer, service, and social-protection responses tailored to local contexts.