Substance Abuse and Treatment Plans

When designing a treatment or prevention plan, singling out treatment and prevention efforts to the individual is virtually ineffective due to the multiple issues that is entangled with substance abuse. Without taping into unresolved issues, treating only the substance abuser still leaves room for sparks to fuel the cycle of abuse (Fischer & Lyness, 2005). Fischer and Lyness (2005) further emphasize this statement by stating, “Helping parents to manage a behaviorally dis-inhibited child effectively may interrupt the negative sequence of events from childhood to young adulthood. Helping parents cope with a substance-abusing child or adolescent is as critical as helping children cope with a substance-abusing parent” (as cited in McKenry & Price 2005 p. 169). Researchers have determined inadequate parent/child relationships correlate to patterns of substance abuse whether it is the beginning cycle of substance abuse, increased patterns, or revert back to past substance abuse behaviors (Rowe & Liddle 2003). When designing a treatment plan, questions necessary to ask are the amount of social support, friends, and extended family that is available.

Research suggests that peer pressure and impulse control are major factors in predicting adolescent alcohol and substance abuse. Adolescents are strongly influenced by what their peers are doing. My friends are drinking and experimenting with drugs, why shouldn’t I (Fischer & Lyness, 2005)?
“
Adolescents sometimes exhibit a complex set of behaviors and personality dispositions that are variously labeled, but at their core invoke the idea of dies-inhibition” (Fischer & Lyness, 2005). Further evidence that peer pressure plays a major role in predictors of substance abuse is my experience in high school. If you wanted alcohol, it was easy to find an irresponsible adult that would purchase alcohol for minors. If you were “in” with an adult, you were popular with your peers because you knew how to acquire alcohol and other illegal substances.

Open parent child communication, guidance, direction, and nurturing are all positive factors in reducing adolescent substance abuse (Fischer & Lyness, 2005). Researchers “found reduced levels of substance use among high school-aged adolescents who had such a parent” (Fischer & Lyness, 2005 p. 168). More access to Boys and Girls Clubs along with other after school functions all have a positive influence in reducing levels of adolescent substance abuse.

Family based therapy has significant benefits including a larger family participation rate. Research suggests that almost 90% of families involved in family based therapy actually attended the first meeting as opposed to parent only treatment centers (Rowe & Liddle 2003).

Researchers also suggest that family therapy may be the best route for family recovery, but no one single approach has shown significant recovery improvement from substance abuse. The largest reason is addicted adolescents hang out with peers that frown on prevention and typically deny the degree of their problem. After detoxifying, many adolescents continue behaviors that lead to substance abuse in the first place. If the family unit is fairly stable, treatments that teach adolescents to cope with physical maturation and raging hormones may prove to be a positive moderator in prevention or intervention (Rathus 2006).

Gender Correlation of Delinquency

According to Siegel, Welsh, and Senna (2007), “there are also some distinct gender differences in the effect. For males, the path runs from delinquency to problems at work and substance abuse: For females, antisocial behavior in youth leads to relationship problems, depression, tendency to commit suicide, and poor health in adulthood” (p.151). They also contend that when we discuss gender differences we must keep in mind that there is little evidence that proves “males are more impulsive than females” (p. 151).

Siegel, Welsh, and Senna (2007) also claim that there are gender differences in violent behavior. Male juveniles are more likely to use a gun in a murder of a friend or acquaintance. “In contrast, the typical female is as likely to kill a family member as an acquaintance and is more likely to use a knife” (p. 178).
Humes (1996) discussed the gender differences in sentencing for male and female criminal delinquent behavior by stating, “Of the four people involved in the failed robbery of Shorty’s house, George has fared the worst. Bambi and JoJo, whose criminal records were no better than George’s, were under sixteen; she got straight probation, he went to a probation camp in the mountains outside of LA for six months” (p. 119).

One of the earliest researches conducted in female delinquency focused on Trait Theories. Dr. Mosher stated that early views of female delinquency were that females who were involved in criminal behavior where inherently evil or physically maladapted. Dr. Mosher went on to discuss Cesare Lombroso’s theory on female delinquency. Lombroso claimed that women were lower on the evolutionary scale than men, more childlike, and less intelligent. According to Siegel, Welsh, and Senna (2007), Lombroso came up with the masculinity hypothesis “suggested that delinquent girls had excessive male characteristics” (p. 179).

Penis envy was one of the earliest claims of female delinquent behavior. According to the video tape lecture (2), Dr. Mosher said that ‘Freudian Theories claim that little girls lost their penis and therefore are vengeful. Seigel, Welsh, & Senna (2006) also interpret the Freudian Theories as followed; Sigmund Freud maintained that girls interpret their lack of a penis as a sign that they have been punished. Boys fear that they can be punished by having their penis cut off, and thus learn to fear women. From this conflict came penis envy, which often produces an inferiority complex in girls, forcing them to make an effort to compensate for their “defect”….

At mid-century, psychodynamics theorists suggested that girls are socialized to be passive, which helps explain their low crime rate. However, this condition also makes some females susceptible to being manipulated by men; hence, their participation in sex-related crimes such as prostitution. A girl’s wayward behavior, psychoanalysts suggested, was restricted to neurotic theft (Kleptomania) and overt sexual acts, which were symptoms of personality maladaption (p. 183).

Humes (1996) discusses the correlation between the losses of a parental figure at a young age to the possibility of adolescent delinquent criminal behavior. Humes (1996) stated, It was tough for Carla’s mother to get a handle on her daughter. The girl had always been closer to her father…She was his little sidekick, working on the car, mowing the lawn, walking to the hardware store to mess with the bins of bolts and nuts and tools: if Dad was doing it, Carla wanted to do it.

His death in a car accident when she was nine devastated Carla leaving her depressed and withdrawn for many months, then resentful of her brothers, sisters, and mother when they picked up the pieces of their lives and tried to move forward (p. 48).