The Effects Of Modeling Adult Behavior On Children

Family disruptors such as divorce and remarriage also have particular influences on drug use. Older adolescents are greatly affected by divorce and remarriage because the family structure has changed. This tends to make older adolescents look for support systems outside the home. The effects of the change can cause adolescents to seek out positive or negative relationships with peers. Younger adolescents are less affected by family disruptors because they do not have the same opportunities or freedom to look outside the home for support, as do older adolescents

Parents who use drugs or alcohol are likely to overlook their children leaving them to their own diplomacy. Since such parents are often lost in their addictions, they are unable to provide the proper leadership that children need particularly throughout their growing days (Sindelar & Fiellin 2001). Teenagers bred in homes where a dear blood relation uses alcohol or drugs, have a superior propensity for developing the dependence afterward, generally because the family is more relaxed in terms of drugs use. The result of alcohol or drug abuse on relations involved and results may differ between families based on a numerous factors. Families affected by substance abuse have one thing in comparison; they reside in homes where traits

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

Research shows the young adolescents who are exposed before 14 years of ages are more likely to develop dependence or addiction to the substance used. Another primary protective prevention method is by good and strict parenting. Parents should be able to monitor their child’s activities or influences to prevent experimentation of substances and also strong close family bonds (Ford, 2016). Support from the family members is very critical in the preventive precautions of a child. Because again one of the major factors that lead to substance about starts at home. Parents must be present throughout the childhood years to guide and orient the child.

When an individual believes, and expects, to have positive effects from a certain drug (e.g., drinking alcohol to reduce stress and anxiety), the likelihood that the individual will abuse the drug is extremely high. Sociocultural factors also play a vital role in how frequently a substance is used, with family and friends being the most influential. A broken family home (e.g., marital problems, parent/sibling alcohol or drug use, and legal or psychiatric problems) can have a tremendous negative effect on a child and the decisions they make. A lack of emotional support from parents is found to increase drug use, whereas the lack of parental monitoring if often associated with higher drug use (Kring, 2014). The idea of being “popular” and having a ton of friends seems to be a common goal for the majority of adolescents and young adults. Social influence is explained by the fact that having peers who drink, influences drinking behavior; however, it is also known that individuals will choose friends with drinking patterns similar to their own. While growing up, most of us have always been told to choose our friends wisely; however, they neglected to tell us how difficult this can be.

Growing up with substance abuse parents can potentially put the children at risk for developmental deficiencies. Parents who are substance dependent are oftentimes focus on themselves over their children, and this leads to neglecting the children. Without the attachment with the parents, children are lack of security and trust to explore the outside world. According to Erik Erikson, children develop at different stage. Infants are totally dependent on their parents. If parents provide the good care and support to the children, they will develop the basic trust to their parents and the world, otherwise, they will feel insecure and develop mistrust instead. This mistrust may cause problems later in life. As children begin to grow and navigate the challenges of adolescence, parental substance abuse has a direct impact on their well-being, as well as their behavior. Teenagers are eager to seek their identities. Yet, growing up with mistrust, inferiority, and shame

Baumrind, D. (1991). The influence of parenting style on adolescent competence and substance use. Journal of Early Adolescence, 11(1), 56-95.

Although all sorts of families can be devastated by addiction, but single parent units (the most common lower class structure) are the most obscured. Behavioral Health of the Palm Beaches supports, “In every family unit, each person plays a role (or multiple roles) to help the family function better and to maintain a level of homeostasis, stability and balance. When substance abuse is added to this dynamic, the family roles naturally shift to adjust to the new behaviors associated with drug or alcohol use, and to continue maintaining order and balance.”4 In single parent units there is an inability of a second parent to fill the void role of the addicted parent. The National Center for Biotechnology Information states, “Frequently, children may act as surrogate spouses for the parent who abuses substances. For example, [young] children may develop elaborate systems of denial to protect themselves against that reality of the parent’s addiction. Because that option does not exist in a single‐parent household with a parent who abuses substances, children are likely to behave in a manner that is not age‐appropriate to compensate for the parental deficiency.”2 So a child growing up in a compromised family unit where addiction is present may develop altered norms and mature into an addict themselves.4

The article that I chose from Nissen’s bibliography article is the role of family in preventing and intervening with substance use and misuse and family interventions that focus on young people. The article talks about how families plays a key part in helping prevent substance abuse and misuse by both promoting and encouraging safety and resilience. Young people are prone to become involved with drugs and not only harm themselves but their families as well. In the United States 12 percent of people in the population aged 12-17, have used some type of illicit drugs (Vellememan, Templeton & Copello, 2004). Young people are easily influenced into the use and misuse of substance abuse. When the child has a close family bond and a positive relationship with family, that closeness has been found to discourage their choices to try drugs and alcohol through positive reinforcements within the family structure. There is evidence that children who are from single parent

All of these environmental factors also influence adolescent prevalence of substance use disorder. In terms of parental substance abuse, Abu-Shakra and Cox (2014), mention that paternal substance abuse does influence the risk of externalizing behaviours and substance abuse disorders. The authors also mention that “maternal depression increases a child’s risk of depression and increases risk for drug abuse. (Tartter, Mammen, & Brennan, 2014 cited in Abu-Shakra & Cox, 2014). It is also the case that “only maternal substance use consequences were consistently related to adolescent psychopathology” (Ohannessian et al., 2004). That is to say, Ohannessian et al., (2004) suggests that maternal substance use was more indicative of an effect on the adolescents’ psychopathology. In other words, similar to what Abu-Shakra and Cox (2014) are saying, negative parental factors influence the

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

This applied system is in light of the reason that the family and peer relationships an individual secures before entering emerging adulthood will continue to form their behavior as an emerging adult as well as into their adult years. The cycle of violence theory proposes that being a victim of physical abuse elevates an individual’s risk in engaging in illegal behaviors and substance use. When researchers applied this theory they found an association between experiences of physical abuse and future criminal behaviors and substance use during adulthood. Similarly, the social learning theory proposes that demonstrations and reinforcement aid in the process of learning to either participate or refrain from illegal and substance use behaviors. “In fact, youth who associate with peers who use tobacco, alcohol, or marijuana are more likely to engage in illegal behaviors and substance use (Snyder and Monroe 215).”

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.

The main conclusion from this test shows that the type of home environment a child grows up in greatly effects their actions when it comes to alcohol consumption and delinquent behavior. A good relationship with the same-sex parent was a direct correlate to less delinquent behavior. This just reinforces that fact that girls and boys growing up in broken homes need to have a strong mother or father figure to help set an example for them to follow. The test showed a strong correlation between the alcohol consumption of parents and the alcohol consumption of kids. Boys followed the

This strain of research developed from the paper of Baumrind (1991). In this work, Baumrind predicts that authoritative parents are more likely to be able to protect their children from substance use. A general observation from many researchers is that children thrive developmentally when the family environment is