Are All Adolescents at High Risk for Drug Addiction?

Last Updated: 07 Dec 2022
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‘Psychological characteristics’ is the reason behind the involvement of the young adults to the use of drugs. This is what the authors who investigated the children in Woodlawn have found.  The study of Kellam, Branch, Agrawal and Ensminger regarding the investigation of how the use of drugs has been present in the childhood antecedents traced how the group of urban children from 6 to 7 years old developed.

In this study, the authors found that after a decade, when the children aged 16 and 17, they have been using drugs. Also, children who began going to school have already varied ways into young adulthood. (Kellam, Branch, Agrawal, & Ensminger, 1975; Kellam, Brown, Rubin, & Ensminger, 1983)

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There was also this study of Jeanne and Jack Block about the children at the San Francisco Bay area, whom since nursery have experienced cases with which psychological characteristics has also been the cause.

If in Woodlawn study, children involved are those aged 16 and 17, in this study, they have found out that children, at the age of 14, has already committed to drugs and the crimes and cases with its involvement, which is quite alarming. (J. H. Block & J. Block, 1980)

The study required the authors to call the government’s attention in mitigating the cases committed by young adults. But aside from the government’s efforts in conducting programs and actions, the study also eyes for the parents to take actions regarding the issue. In terms of the responsibility, it has been the parents who are always on the position to take care of the psychological and emotional development of the children.

These studies also included the whole range of conference later subsumed by the California Child Q-sort and the California Adult Q-sort that was designed to give permission to the clinicians in providing the in-depth, wide-ranging psychological descriptions. It was intend to gather information that is full of all psychological terms to talk about the concerns of the clinical and to give information to the efforts of intervention. (Smith, G. M., & Fogg, C. P. (1978).

Earlier investigators to this case have assumed nonstop relationships between the measures of psychological disturbances and the level of drug usage. It is because the approach assumes that the infrequent experimentation with the drugs has been problematic in terms of psychology, because of the tendency and the pressure to the adolescents for the regular use of drugs and for it becomes good to them (drugs are found to be good when the user is under the influence of it).

Nonetheless, most of the adolescents in the United States have experiments in the use of marijuana most of the time, and the huge majority of these adolescents do not latterly become abusers of drugs because there is found “adjustment in the psychosocial” to those young adults who have experiments the use of drugs occasionally and of those young adults who totally avoided drugs. (Johnston et al., 1986; Johnston, Bachman, & O'Malley, 1981 a, 1981 b; Miller et al., 1983; NIDA, 1986)

Certainly, occasional use of drugs is what has been suggested by most of the researchers for the adolescents to understand the manifestation of the developmentally appropriate experimentation.  One of them has observed those behaviors, personalities and the attitudes of the young adults before they choose a path to in their own choice.

It is an expedition for or the organization of self-rule and independently personality and performance. This may be believed a normative attitude among the adolescents of the America from a developmental mission of outlook and in conditions of incidence.

In their study, the subject was one hundred and one children. There are forty nine boys and the fifty two remaining are girls. All ages 18 years old. They came from the preliminary preview of one hundred and thirty respondents in a study of the development of ego and mentality. They were at first employed into the experiment at their age of three. They were attending their nursery then, assessed by their parents.

 The children have been measured on an extensive successions of psychological methods at ages three, four, five, eleven, fourteen and eighteen. Because there are just few of the subjects were lost over many of years, there can still be an amount of degree of difference of the slow destruction.

In the interview, it has been those with the age of eighteen are being collected of the information about drugs. These interviews were conducted by the skilled and knowledgeable deficiency experts and the interviews varied over a selection of topics together with the works in school, relationship with the classmates and friends, the dynamics of the family and the personal interests.

 The respondents were given questions about if they smoked pot or if they are using it in another form. The response goes with answers like if they never used marijuana, used it one time or two, more than two, one time in a month, one time in a week; twice or thrice in a week and the daily usage.

The result of the study reveals that thirty seven percent of the respondents have reportedly trying cocaine and those who tried hallucinogens have been about twenty five percent. It was about ten percent of them found to be trying inhalants, barbiturates, amphetamines and even tranquilizers. There was also one of them has found to have used the heroin.

 Those who tried marijuana also have the largest count, which is about sixty-eight percent. Before this, it was researched that four years earlier, it was fifty one percent only of the research have been using marijuana. Of the sixty eight percent of the category, thirty nine percent has found to be using marijuana once or more within a month, while twenty one percent of it has found to be using it in a week or about more than a week.

These data point out that in a no selected delayed young adult example, irregular study with the marijuana is not destructive in terms of personal and societal.

This insight is held up by studies of the penalties of drug usage, as well as with the research in the background and associative of drug usage and by with the truth that most of the young adults in America have tested marijuana but have not consequently turn to be abusers of drugs.

The obvious contradiction between medical awareness and the found facts by the study, on the other hand, have been resulted when it has been documented that the individuals who in attendance themselves for drug treatment are not courier of the broad population of the young adults.

For them, the study with the drugs is extremely unhelpful because drugs effortlessly become an element of a wider pathological disease. For the young adults more in general, some of the study in drugs is obviously does not have the appalling repercussion in the psychology.

The Institute of Criminal Justice and Criminology made an evaluation of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE). It examines the DARE if it functions well or bad, and if its reaction to the incidents of drugs is being competent.

They compared three hundred forty one fifth grader DARE students to those students who are not under the DARE. There were found major differences in the anticipated track for the usage of alcohol in the previous year, trust in the non anti-society standards, involvement with the group of friends who uses drugs, productive involvement in a group, approach to the police or military, conduct trick, liking and enthusiasm to the school, behaviors that are close to to material usage, and rudeness

There were no distinctions found on the vice materials such as tobacco, cigarettes, and or marijuana usage last year, incidence of any use of drugs in the previous month. All have been the same, just some changes in terms of number figure, but in the total picture of it, nothing has changed.

CONCLUSION

 There have been a lot of books, references, studies and publications that are being made by the experts for the benefit of research and information to identify the causes and effects of the drug addiction issues worldwide. Almost every man in the world knows that the use of drugs is illegal, as it has been imposed by the government that drug use is prohibited because of its negative effects and disadvantages.

The reason why there is a high risk for the adolescents in drug addiction is mostly because of the psychological attributes. The quality of guidance and assistance of the parents to their children is proven to be the major cause on why young adults are getting involved into drug addiction.

It has been the parents who are being responsible on why the kids grow out of the path and without proper orientation of what life must be when they get into the matured age.

Young adults are very prone in the addiction to drugs for their vulnerability stage. They are in the most curious stage of their lives in which no one can not stop them of being probing of everything new to them. The temptation to do everything they want because they are curious about it is very active at their age. So they are really at the high risk of drug addiction.

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Are All Adolescents at High Risk for Drug Addiction?. (2016, Jun 16). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/are-all-adolescents-at-high-risk-for-drug-addiction/

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