Family management risk and protective factors for adolescent substance use in South Africa Full Text

According to El Kazdouh et al., individuals with a strong belief against substance use and those with a strong desire to maintain their health were more likely to be protected from involvement in drug abuse [46]. This stage is characterized by a rapid change to a new social phase where individuals have greater freedom and less social control when compared to the experience during childhood [1]. The odds of consuming alcohol more frequently when sharing was at lowest category sharing were 6.5 times than when sharing was at the second higher category. The odds of being in a higher category of alcohol use when behavioural control through guilt was at category were 12.8 times when compared to level 2 (Table 3). Table 3 displays results from ordinal logistic regression predicting substance use in adolescents as influenced by discipline and behavioural control.

Individual risk factors include difficulties handling impulses, emotional instability, thrill-seeking behaviors, and underestimating the consequences of using. Risk of SUD also increases during times of transition, such as changing schools, moving, or parent divorce. Societal risk factors for teenagers include peer pressure and the portrayal of teenage drinking in the media, including social media and advertising which promotes drinking behaviors in teenagers. Substance use disorder and the availability of certain over-the-counter drugs are worldwide issues that affect many individuals, both mentally and physically.

Family and environmental factors of drug addiction among young recruits

The absence of protective factors and the presence of risk factors predispose adolescents to drug abuse. Some of the risk factors are the presence of early mental and behavioral health problems, peer pressure, poorly equipped schools, poverty, poor parental supervision and relationships, a poor family structure, a lack of opportunities, isolation, gender, and accessibility to drugs [9]. The protective factors include high self-esteem, religiosity, grit, peer factors, self-control, parental monitoring, academic competence, anti-drug use policies, and strong neighborhood attachment [10–15].

Social stigma derived from justice-involved or drug abuser parent and a neighborhood with a high rate of crime and poverty could lead to delinquent behaviors to become a channel of transmission of criminal values, especially in childhood and early adolescence. Moreover, the criminal history of a neighborhood or of a family increases the social stigma and affects the probability of obtaining a higher education and employment, developing into the only possible career, criminality. Substance abuse is affected not only by individuals’ environments or backgrounds but also by other factors such as age, interpersonal trauma, ethnicity, gender, academic stress for those aged years, long-term use of prescribed medication, and socioeconomic status.

Familial Influences on Adolescent Substance Use

This review has addressed some recent knowledge related to the individual, familial, and community risk and preventive factors for adolescent drug use. We suggest that more attention should be given to individual factors since most findings were discussed in relation to such factors. With the increasing trend of drug abuse, it will be critical to focus research specifically on this area.

• A major strength is the inclusion of several known risk factors for adolescent engagement in substance use, and the rate of adolescent participation in the study might be considered high in a school setting.
• Youth with substance use disorders also experience higher rates of physical and mental illnesses, diminished overall health and well-being, and potential progression to addiction.
• The process of development of the prefrontal cortex and limbic system during adolescence increases the likelihood that behaviors initiated during this vulnerable period will have long-term effects and continue throughout the lifespan [13, 26].
• In the second part of the study, all family management variables and controlled variables were incorporated into a single logistic regression model for each of the descriptors of the family management variables in an exploratory manner.
• Research has improved our understanding of factors that help buffer youth from a variety of risky behaviors, including substance use.
• Parental substance use was calculated either as legal substance (alcohol) use, or illicit substance use with combined scores from the rest of the substances.

Therefore, positive and supportive relationships with parents may reduce these risks. For this reason, we consider it useful for future research and interventions to place the focus on family in a multidimensional level. For instance, the so-called family-based approach therapy in treating and preventing drug abuse and criminal behavior among youth provides such possibilities. Adolescents are more likely to be involved in behaviors such as drug abuse and criminal acts.

DOMAIN: family factors

When other factors were taken into account, parenting styles, as operationalised in the present study, were found to be of little or no importance for the onset of substance use among adolescents. Specific rules concerning substance use, substance use among peers, and early delinquency and substance use seem to be more important for the development of substance use behaviours among adolescents. Our results indicate that, perhaps, preventive efforts should be focused on these areas rather than at the quality of the relationship between parent and child. The effectiveness of family-based models for adolescence drug abuse and other related problems has been demonstrated.

Substance abuse could be described “as a maladaptive pattern of drug use leading to clinically significant impairment or distress” (Kpae, 2019). According to some authors (Mamman et al., 2014), the term usually refers to illegal drugs. However, substance abuse is also related to the degree of social acceptance of substances, such as alcohol, prescription medicine, and other legal substances, which are viewed teen drug abuse as illicit and less harmful. Indeed, it may also be defined as the use of psychotherapeutic and medical drugs in the presence or in the absence of a specific diagnosis (Fareo, 2012). According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-III-R (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 1987), “psychoactive substance abuse” is defined as “a maladaptive pattern of use indicated by.

Risk and protective factors affecting substance use can be categorized as contextual, variable and individual risk, and protective factors - which have been extensively reviewed [1]. Fixed markers include gender, biological indicators, income, family substance history, parent psychopathology, parental marital status and income/ social economic status. Contextual variables include factors such as law, availability, social norms and community order. Among individual and interpersonal risk and protective factors, family environment influences the likelihood of substance abuse problems significantly.

This aspect has however provoked a large quantity of research on children’s perceptions of parental behaviour [17]. The principal investigator personally interviewed adolescent participants with a history of substance use. Participants were sourced from rehabilitation centres in Pretoria, namely Staanvaas and Castle Carey Clinic, between September 2014 and June 2015, and were contacted upon ethical approval of the study. The 54 respondents consisted of 48 males and six females between the ages of 14 and 20 years from different socio-economic backgrounds. Respondents were selected by stratified random sampling, with rehabilitation centres serving as the stratum.