A Rational Emotive Behavioral Theory ( Rebt ) Psychoeducational Group For Adolescent Abusing Drugs And Alcohol

Teenage drug abuse is an issue that can result from a wide variety of social influences, stressful events, and mental disorders. Drug abuse among adolescents is a troubling issue because it decreases focus, increases the chance of consistency in behavior during adulthood, increases the chances of developing emotional issues, permanently damages the brain, and damages tissues in every system that can lead to death. Previous scientific research has identified that social factors, including the media and peers, play an important role in psychological development and impact the adolescent's decision to start experimenting with substances (Botvin 888). Appropriate solutions for the teenage drug abuse issue already exist, but the only remaining

Psychoeducational groups relating to additions or substance abuse are designed to assist participants in their stages of change, learn about recovery, provide information to families to understand behaviors, and to assist participants with resources and skills (U.S Department of Health and Human Services, n.d). Psychoeducational groups will support participants and encourage them to take responsibility for their actions. These groups will utilize different methods to replace addictive behavior and practice mindfulness to work on any cognitive impairment that their addiction has produced (U.S Department of Health and Human Service, n.d). In addition, substance abuse or addiction psychoeducational groups provide participants support and peer confrontation. Other members are able to support the group by offering education about what has worked well for them, or what has not work well. The group processes also provides emotional support for members to assist in personal recovery.

Perkins and Wesley (2014), found that a handbook should be used by educators, counselors and clinicians for understanding and implementing an alternative to traditional methods for preventing substance abuse among young people. the social norm approach present in the handbook focuses on the phenomena beyond the individual’s personality and personal values which are important determinants of behaviors and offers information about how these influences can be changed. The handbook consists of a variety of specific techniques, programs and field-tested results of the application which can be used in various schools and

Adolescent substance abuse is a phenomenon in our country that has been steadily inclining ever since the 2000’s. The effects of this incline are very straight forward and call for action. The facts are that alcohol and drugs are the leading causes of crime among youth and that alcohol and drugs are the leading factors in teenage suicide. (National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc., 2014) Because adolescence is such a crucial developmental age the effects of alcohol and drug use are catastrophic. To fully understand this phenomenon we must firs operationalize all of the factors we are trying to study. The DSM V classifies substance abuse as,

Based on the many studies analyzing the effectiveness of D.A.R.E programs, they indicate that the program has many limitations. One limitation the Dare program experiences according to Clayton, Cattarello, and Johnstone (1996) is “drug prevention programs are seeking to change behaviors which have a strong developmental element” (p. 11). The dare program only touches upon the surface aspects of drug such as informing children about the effects of using drugs and resisting peer

Adolescent substance abuse is a major problem in society. There are many risk factors that can contribute to adolescent substance abuse. One of the main risk factors is peer pressure. When adolescents start at a young age there is an increase in health problems, addiction, and over all poor social outcomes. Parental influence has substantial effect on adolescents because the adolescent sees their parents and they learn by their example. Media plays a role in the use of drug and alcohol use among young people. Many school systems have implemented programs that teach adolescents about the problems of substance abuse that is funded

School –based drug use- prevention programs such as DARE, Project Alert, and Life Skills Training program have been designed to keep kids from illiciting drugs. Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) is an educational program usually delivered by a police officer. The 17 week program components are learning refusal skills, teen leaders, making a public commitment not to use illicit drugs. Also, affective education components include: self-esteem building, alternatives to drug use and decision making. Research on the effectiveness of

The social behavior of an individual can be determined by the surroundings and other people. The people who are close are more likely to impact one another’s behavior than people who do not interact closely. Individuals who interact closely include children and their parents and friends among others. Nevertheless, some developmental stages are more prone to being impacted by other people concerning the outcome of social behavior. Early stages of development (childhood) and adolescence are more likely to be affected by the surroundings and relationships than other stages such as adulthood (Whitesell, Bachand, Peel, & Brown, 2013). For instance, children and adolescents friendship relationships lead to peer pressure. Peer pressure can influence teens to abuse drugs which can result in addiction. Another social risk factor that can enhance the onset of substance abuse in teenagers is a broken relationship with their parents (Whitesell, Bachand, Peel, & Brown, 2013). Parents are central when it comes to controlling inappropriate behavior such as substance abuse amongst children in the society. Therefore, once there is a broken relationship and communication with parents, the children will experience stress and trauma. The teenagers will then engage in drug

It has been found that some adolescents are more at risk of abusing alcohol or drugs than others. For example, adolescents who have been abused are at an increased risk of alcohol use early in their lives due to the trauma (Hamburger, Leeb and Swahn, 2008). It has also been proposed that specific personality traits increase the likelihood of alcohol use and misuse (Hudson, Wekerle and Stewart, 2015; Pihl and Peterson, 1995). An example of the personality traits are anxiety sensitivity (Reiss et al, 1986) and impulsivity (Dawe and Loxton, 2004). Personality traits such as these, as well as certain situations, have been found to increase susceptibility to abusing alcohol, as it may encourage risky motives for drinking. These include coping motives, where young people may drink to numb negative feelings, and to conform to peer behaviour to avoid repercussions (Hudson, Wekerle and Stewart,

In recent years, numerous studies have focused on the conditions and influences of substance use in the development of adolescents worldwide. Current studies are discovering multiple pathways and important risk factors that contribute to the increasing usage of substances surrounding adolescents. Specifically, considerable data referring to the influence of adolescent’s self-esteem to substance abuse. In order to fully understand the complexity of substance abuse, one must consider multiple factors that impact an adolescent’s life greatly, such as their environment and self-esteem. In order to consider the single influence of substance abuse to an adolescent, research must focus on finding similar patterns among substance use, environments, and self-esteem. Research shows that children affected by substance abuse show similar patterns of low self-esteem. These substance abusive experiences include specific socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods, homes with parents that use substances, and adolescent’s own substance abuse struggles. These three different pathways of substance abuse have an equifinal deficit of an adolescent’s self-esteem.

A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the impact of family and peers on both initiation and continuation of substance use among adolescent students. 416 sample were taken. Results of the study was showed that prevalence of substance use found to be higher among the students of urban area (15.1%) than their rural area (10. 7%). Higher grade students were more engaged in comparison to low grade students. The mean age of initiation to substance use ranged from 12.6 to 13.9 years. Family members, friends, easy availability were found to be influencing factor for initiation. The study was concluded that family environments as well as peers groups has an important bearing on initiation and continuation of substance use. Hence, it is necessary to provided that health promotion programs directed toward students and their families and peers groups which encourage attitude shaping among school children towards self-confidence and adequacy.11

Also social learning theory can be applied to peer group influence to increase risk of drug use. This social learning theory argued that various deviant behaviors are associated with deviant peer groups (Akers, 1998; Sutherland, 1948; cited in Rebellon and Gundy, 2006, p.515). It is coincides with delinquency theory that the relationship with delinquent peers appears as a primary indicator of illicit drug misuse. (Akers, 1998; Akers, Krohn, Lanza-Kaduce, & Radosevich, 1979; Akers & Lee, 1996; Akers & Lee, 1999; Damphousse & Kaplan, 1998; Duncan et al., 1994; Duncan et al., 1995; Esbensen & Elliott, 1994, cited in Rebellon and Gundy, 2006, p.515). The study also concluded that peer pressure and drug use in siblings are major risk factors for

The purpose of this brief overview is to outline the different effects of drugs and alcohol on youths and their families. Addictions have become a problem for many households. Many parents don’t realize that the youth has an addiction problem until the problem has gotten out of control and to the point that family is in a crisis. Parents may feel as if it's their fault and the addition has torn the family apart. In the study, it reviews how parents seek to understand and gain experience on how to cope with substance abuse issues emerging with their adolescence.

When I think about adolescents and alcohol/drug use, I think about people that I knew in high school. In many psychology courses we learn that psychoeducation is important and that it can assist in bettering one’s understanding of a substance, treatment, or other psychological disorders. Through brainstorming I thought about the education that I received on drugs and alcohol when I was in school, which was next to nothing. In fifth grade we partook in the D.A.R.E. program that was supposed to teach us the harmfulness of drugs and alcohol and to pledge not to use any of the substances. In middle school there was one week that they put up posters and our homeroom teacher read a paper to us about the harmfulness of drugs. When I was in high school there was a small display in high school about a car accident due

Teenagers face many difficult decisions in their lives and have many people in their lives that influence them. One of the major groups that influence teens is their peer group. “Since teenagers are not yet comfortable with themselves, they have a strong need to be accepted by their peers. And to be accepted, they feel they have to be just like their peers” (Ruth Maxwell, p. 24). From Maxwell we learn that teenagers will use alcohol to be accepted by a group. As age progresses the number of alcohol users progress 73 percent of kids that are from the ages of 16-18 are drinkers. In addition, around 90 percent of high school seniors have experienced alcohol at least once in their life.