Meier et al., (2016) undertakes significant research about the connection of problematic internet use and substance abuse among the young adolescents. The research was aimed at identifying if problematic internet use was in association with substance. The results of the study showed that among the problematic internet users, the majority were females. Also, it was found that they were prone and more likely to abuse drugs and substance. Other characteristics of the problematic internet users include; they reported poor well-being in terms of emotional maturity, they were also characterized to come from disgruntled or non-intact families and were below average students ( Carter & Hall , 2011) . Therefore, the research discovers that problematic use of internet contributes to a large extent, too risky and irresponsible behaviors among children and young adolescents. That is inclusive of the behavior of substance abuse.
Therefore problematic internet use should be included in the psychosocial screening of adolescence and any other relevant program geared towards the countermeasures of dealing with the problem of substance abuse among adolescents. To reduce the problem of substance abuse, there should be a wide campaign about responsible internet use among young adolescents. That will be useful in reduces the chances of negative exposer (Evans et al., 2013). Parents should be empowered to start the campaign since it is true that charity begins at home. The internet is a useful tool but it should also be recognized as a weapon, especially among the young adolescents. Since much is at stake in leaving young adolescents to their own devices when it comes to internet use, the narrative should change. Letting children have a healthy spiritual background will ensure close monitoring and exposure to less lethal behaviors and things around the internet (Grant et al., 2015).
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Research also discovered that a combination of risk factors can be linked to persistent substance abuse. The research found out that substance abuse among young adolescents can easily be predicted because the risk factors directly point to persistent drug abuse among young adolescents. The main risk factors identified by the study are; the history of substance abuse in families, depression or conduct disorder in childhood, early substance exposure, socioeconomic status surrounding children, sex and frequent abuse of drugs and substance in the adolescent stage. Therefore, to fight substance abuse among young adolescents, the government should put up measures and policies to empower families to be more stable. Families should also be empowered to have a spiritual foundation because they will act as a shelter to the children. With stable families and strong spiritual foundations, the risk factors identified above would have been scraped off.
The recent reports that the rate of substance abuse among teenagers is an indication of a high rate of family disintegration and lack of spiritual foundation for children as they grow up. What with the recent report by CNN that in one year alone, the rate of death due to drug overdose among teens rose to 19 percent. The main drug contributing to the 19 percent rise in the death rate from 2014 to 2015, is attributed to heroin (Kounang, 2017) . The data of teen deaths are reported to have increased from 3.1 deaths per 100,000 to 3.7 per 100,000. The statistics are from the National Center for Health Statistics. Donald Trump reported that the best way to tackle the problem of drug abuse leading to overdose and deaths among the teens is to help them not to get into drug abuse in the first place ( Kounang, 2017) .
References
Carter , A , Hall , W ( 2011 ). Addiction Neuroethics: The Promises and Perils of Neuroscience Research on Addiction . Cambridge University Press : Cambridge .
Evans , GW , Li , D , Whipple , SS ( 2013 ). Cumulative risk and child development . Psychological Bulletin 139 , 1342 – 1396
Grant , BF , Goldstein , RB , Saha , TD , Chou , SP , Jung , J , Zhang , H , Pickering , RP , Ruan , WJ , Smith , SM , Huang , B ( 2015 ). Epidemiology of DSM-5 alcohol use disorder: results from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions III . JAMA Psychiatry 72 , 757 – 766 .
Kounang, N. (2017, August 16). Teen drug overdose death rate climbed 19% in one year. Retrieved from CNN: https://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/16/health/teen-overdose-death-rate/index.html
Meier, M. H., Hall, W., Caspi, A., Belsky, D. W., Cerdá, M., Harrington, H., ... & Moffitt, T. E. (2016). Which adolescents develop persistent substance dependence in adulthood? Using population-representative longitudinal data to inform universal risk assessment. Psychological medicine , 46 (4), 877-889.
