A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Education in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters in Educational Psychology in the Department Of Educational Psychology and Special Needs Education at the University of Zululand, 2018 / The study examined the experiences of high school educators in dealing with substance abuse at uThungulu District schools. Data for the study was gathered through survey. A structured questionnaire was designed and used to obtain information from school educators who served as teachers and principals in selected schools. The descriptive design approach was employed in this study. Purposive sampling technique was employed to select five secondary schools in uThungulu Districts, while simple random sampling technique was used to select 176 educators from the five schools. The quantitative data collected through questionnaire were analysed using descriptive statistics of percentage and frequency counts. The results of the quantitative data were displayed as tables and graphs, followed by discussions of each result. The overall results revealed that substance abuse affects both mental and psychological wellbeing of learners, which later develops into poor academic performance. The Educators that participated in the study attested to this when they responded affirmatively that excessive use of drug affects physical coordination of learners in classes, mental disconnection, and permanent brain damage. The study recommends the inclusion of Education for Substance Abuse Avoidance and Treatment as part of the core subjects in South African schools, and such should be offered in local languages. In addition, interactive teaching methods such as brainstorming, open discussions, and role-playing are recommended for all learners, including those who abuse substance and those addicted. Lastly, the study recommends the engagement of the professional Guidance and Counsellors in the South African schools whose primary assignment would be to counsel learners not only on substance abuse but also on career choice and future professional guidance.

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree MASTER IN EDUCATION in the Department of Educational Psychology of the Faculty of Education at the University of Zululand, 2009. / The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of substance abuse amongst secondary school learners. This was achieved via a literature study and an empirical study. In the light of the findings certain recommendations which can assist educators, principals, parents and the Department of Education to plan and take action in order to combat drug abuse and addition amongst secondary school learners, were formulated. Schools have always had and will always have significant influence on learner’s lives and must therefore be the focus of any effective implementation of arresting strategies. The secondary school community has in the past and to a certain extend in the present not treated the increasing use of drugs as a priority. This could possibly be because of the many types of legitimate drugs that are available, and which are said to cure, prevent or slow down diseases and enable people to lead longer, healthier and happier lives. Antibiotics have improved the treatment of infections and vaccines have prevented the spread of diseases such as measles, while analgesics have lessened or eliminated pain. However, it should be the harmful and illegal drugs that parents and the community should be made aware of. Illegal and harmful drugs infiltrate all levels of society, asking no name, title or gender. They come in many names and forms and they will negatively impact on health, sanity, families and finally people’s lives. The literature study found that that substance abuse affected the physical, psychological (cognitive and affective), social and normative development of the secondary school learner. For the purpose of the empirical investigation, a self-structured questionnaire for educators was utilized. The data obtained from the completed questionnaires was processed and analyzed by means of descriptive statistics. The findings confirmed that substance abuse has a negative effect on the development of the secondary school learner. The following are some of the recommendations that were made: • The Department of Education must develop a practical formal policy on the use of drugs in school in collaboration with Sanca, the National Department of Health, the Police Service and other relevant stakeholders. • Sufficient human and financial resources must be made available by the Department of Education for the Training, supervision and monitoring of the drug policy in all school. • The Department of Education in collaboration with teacher unions, principal forums, school management teams, education organization and Sanca must conduct workshops for the educators in which the following aspects, concerning drugs abuse will receive attention:  Reasons why learners use drugs.  How to identify learner drug abusers.  Procedures to follow when a learner is suspected of being a drug user.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The problem behavior theory suggests that the engagement in one problematic behavior increases the likelihood of engagement in another problematic behavior. Previous research has found among youth an increasing probability of co-occurring dieting and substance use behavior, particularly among girls. However, to date findings are inconclusive on the temporal ordering of these behaviors. Further, limited research has been conducted to explore whether the temporal ordering of the two behaviors exist similarly between White and Black youth. The present study will use a cross-lagged panel design across one year to examine the temporal ordering between dieting behavior and substance use among a sample of 2,016 adolescent females (grade mean=7; 77.2% White; 22.8% Black). We hypothesized that a bidirectional relationship would be observed between the two behaviors. However, given no published studies on this relationship by race, no a priori hypotheses were made for this second aim. Result showed that within the full sample dieting behavior significantly predicted substance use one year later, but the inverse relationship was not found. Additionally, this effect was replicated in the White sample but null effects in both directions was found among Black youth. These findings provide support for a temporal relationship between dieting behavior and substance use, such that the former predicts risk for the latter. Moreover, although there is evidence of race differences in the risk pathway, further research is needed to confirm this effect. Future studies are also needed to determine whether this observed temporal relationship is present among adolescent females of other racial/ethnic groups, as well as if the relationship varies as a function of other demographic variables, such as age (e.g., early, mid, or late-adolescence).

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / African American adolescents have historically been considered at low risk for substance use relative to the White adolescent majority based on national prevalence estimates. However, during the last decade, African American adolescents’ rates of marijuana use—alone and in combination with other substances—have increased disproportionately relative to those of their White peers. Given the strong relationship between marijuana use and other substance use and the functional consequences associated with concurrent substance use during adolescence, the increase in marijuana use among African American youth may contribute to increased substance-related health disparities across the lifespan. Thus, the current study examined daily associations between marijuana use and other substance use among African American adolescents relative to their White peers. It also examined whether those associations differentially predicted behavioral health consequences among African American adolescents. Participants (N = 35; 42.9% African American) were adolescents age 14-18 who reported past 30-day use of marijuana, alcohol, and/or tobacco products. Respondents completed daily diaries reporting their substance use for 14 consecutive days, followed by self-report measures of internalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms, and substance use problems. Multilevel regression and structural equation models were used to account for the nesting of days within individuals. Participants completed 458 diaries for a completion rate of 93.5%. African American respondents reported greater daily- and individual-level rates of marijuana use and concurrent substance use than White respondents. However, in multilevel models controlling for demographics, marijuana use was not related to concurrent use of alcohol and/or tobacco use and this relationship did not vary by race. Racial differences in the relationship between concurrent substance use and behavioral health consequences were observed such that the relationship was positive among White youth but not African American youth. Findings suggest that African American youth are at high risk for engagement in problematic patterns of substance use but that daily diary methods may not be most appropriate for illuminating these patterns. Despite these unexpected results, disparities in substance-related consequences among African Americans adults persist. Future research should examine long-term rather than proximal consequences of concurrent substance use among African American adolescents.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Despite data suggesting that current substance use disorder treatments are largely effective in reducing substance use, most adolescents in SUD treatment experience relapse after finishing treatment. Understanding the factors proximal to relapse is crucial to understanding the course of substance use disorder and how best to improve recovery among adolescents. The current study represents part of a novel line of research using qualitative data analysis to examine these factors. Data for the present study were 200 de-identified node-maps, completed by high school students at Hope Academy, a recovery high school in Indianapolis, Indiana. The reported age in this sample ranged from 14-20 years (64.1% male, 89.1% White), with a mean age of 16.8 years (SD = 1.9 years). After a four-phase process of qualitative data sorting, primary people, places, and things most frequently described included using with others (n=153, 76.5%), away from home (n=156, 78.0%), and in response to negative affect (n=93, 48.4%). Eleven relapse pathways emerged: escaping (n=16), self-medicating (n=3), coping with tragedy (n=5), critical mass (n=6), unexpected activation (n=8), unexpected offer (n=22), planned use (n=19), resistant to recovery (n=5), not in recovery (n=22), passive agency (n=30), and acting out (n=15). Recovery is a system made up of many interrelated parts, including those related to the individual person in recovery, their thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and emotions; and those related to external factors, their environment, adverse life events, and the actions of other people. By considering the pathways together for their common features, they can each be said to represent one of three critical failures related to those three overarching facets of the system: failure to cope, failure to guard against temptation, and failure of belief. Identifying these overarching failures in the system is helpful because the failures contain in themselves the seeds of their solution, so by examining them as critical components to a relapse event, it may be possible to gain insight into how to prevent the same type of relapses from occurring in the future.

Contingency management (CM), an intervention that typically provides financial incentives for abstinence, has also been applied to treatment engagement. However, little is known about the magnitude of treatment effects when financial incentives are provided for attendance. A systematic search was conducted to identify studies that included incentives for attendance, either in isolation or in combination with incentives for abstinence. Meta-analysis was used to estimate the effect sizes on treatment attendance and abstinence. A total of 10 studies including 12 CM treatments (6 incentives for attendance only and 6 incentives for both attendance and abstinence) with 1,673 participants were identified. Results indicated a moderate effect (d = 0.47, 95% confidence interval (CI) [0.24, 0.68]) on attendance relative to non-reward active comparison conditions, p <.001. Frequency of incentives for attendance was significantly associated with larger effect sizes. Results also indicated a small effect (d = 0.22, 95% CI [0.11, 0.32]) on abstinence relative to non-reward comparisons, p <.001. Overall, this meta-analysis supported financial incentives for attendance to increase treatment engagement, with smaller effects on abstinence compared to those observed in meta-analyses on financial incentives for abstinence. Although financial incentives for attendance increased clients' attendance, the impact on abstinence was weaker than conditions that included both incentives for attendance and abstinence. Clinics implementing CM should consider these differential effects in the selection of reinforcement targets.

No description available.

No description available.

A review of the literature indicates that young males, who are unemployed with low levels of education, predominate in populations of pre-trial criminal offenders suspected of having a psychiatric illness, also known as “Observation Patients” according to the Criminal Procedures Act of 1977 in South Africa. Other contributory factors include a history of mental illness and non-compliance on psychiatric medication, a previous forensic history, co-morbid substance abuse and being intoxicated at the time of the offence. Dual diagnosis is considered a key contributor to criminal behaviour in this group of patients. The review of the literature also shows a significant proportion of co-morbid intellectual disability among offenders found to be psychiatrically ill at the time of the criminal event. A previous study conducted 20 years earlier, in 1986 at the Sterkfontein Forensic Psychiatric Unit by Vorster (1986) showed that the typical profile was a single, unemployed, poorly educated male in his twenties, usually with a history of psychiatric treatment. This typical profile confirmed the evidence in the literatures at the time of the study.

A growing body of research is targeted towards characterizing and explaining nicotine’s complex interactions with the ApoE E4 allele on brain responses underlying cognitive processes. However, when and how the ε4 allele modulates neuroelectric brain responses in the presence of nicotine versus nicotine abstinence in nicotine-dependent smokers is not well characterized. Being able to understand this modulation is potentially quite important given that recent research implies that, relative to non-ε4 carriers, young adult carriers of the ε4 allele exhibit greater cognitive benefits from the use of nicotine. In the present study, electroencephalography (EEG) and the oddball-related P3b event-related potential (ERP) were used to better characterize the potential moderating effects of ApoE on P3b ERP amplitude changes associated with overnight nicotine deprivation in dependent smokers. Results showed a significant interaction between ApoE genotype and nicotine use, as ε4 carriers, relative to noncarriers, demonstrated significantly greater decreases following overnight deprivation, relative to prequit baseline levels. Additionally, there was a main of effect of P3b ERP amplitude to target stimuli being greater in ε4 allele carriers than in noncarriers during nicotine use, but no main effect of APOE genotype during overnight nicotine deprivation. These results are consistent with findings that the ApoE genotype moderates the effects of nicotine and alters neuroelectric brain responses associated with selective attention to infrequent target stimuli.