An Attitude Survey consisting of 70 variables was administered to 1007 Indiana high school students. This sample came from public, parochial, and private schools. The survey was designed to investigate the backgrounds, attitudes, and personality characteristics of the high school drug user.Significant correlates of high school drug use were: sex, age, and grade in school, mother working outside the home, lack of closeness to family members, and parental drinking, smoking, and medicating habits. Users tended to identify strongly with their peers and depend upon them. They generally exhibited a negative attitude toward school and authority, a pessimistic assessment of life in general and of their own futures, and a positive evaluation of the effects of drugs.The high school drug user’s personality was marked by: depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, self-seeking, and a lack of religiosity. They also combined multiple personal worries and fears with few effective coping mechanisms.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between drug abuse and high school size. This thesis includes a survey which was conducted at Ball State University. The dependent variable was drug use; school size was the main independent variable and was positively related to drug use. Intervening variables were considered-parent/teacher relations, student/teacher interaction, participation in extracurricular activities, and peer acquaintanceship. Several control variables were also taken into consideration which were as follows: 1) size of city; 2) racial composition of high school; 3) per-capita income; 4) drug education programs; 5) religiosity of community; 6)educational aspirations; and finally 7) respondent's perceived class composition.Peer acquaintanceship had the opposite effect of what was originally hypothesized. Control variables which remained significant in the analyses were city size, income, and race. After including the significant control variables high school size was still significant at .05. According to these findings, future research on drug use and adolescents should take into consideration high school size. / Department of Sociology

OBJECTIVE: To review existing PDMP statutes, and to provide recommendations for good legislative drafting that will create effective statutory components that will enhance the function and increase the use of PDMPs. METHODS: This policy review was conducted from July 2014 to December 2014, using articles dated January 01, 2004 to July 01, 2014. All PubMed searches were artificially limited to peer reviewed articles that were available as “free full text.” To ensure a comprehensive review of the policies, statutes from all fifty states were surveyed using the legal database, Westlaw Next. The search used terms associated with PDMPs. Each statute was reviewed by title and content to determine applicability to the study. The list of statutes compiled from Westlaw Next was compared with existing publications that survey PDMP statutes. The recommendations are based on the investigator’s experience and training in law and public health in consultation with a legislative expert, and supported by peer reviewed articles and legislative drafting guides. RESULTS: There are twelve main topical components that are addressed in existing state PDMP statutes. The policy brief’s primary three recommendations are to implement an advisory committee with an outlined membership, impose a duty for the committee to routinely review database information and to report on the findings, mandate practitioners to consult the database prior to administering controlled substances, and enact a PDMP educational component for practitioners. Appendix A of this policy review (attached) provides a full list of the recommendations for effective legislation on all twelve topical components.

Substance abuse is a prevalent occurrence among adolescents. A review of the literature revealed that adolescent substance abuse has a strong connection to their academic performance. School counselors address adolescents' academic and personal/social needs by providing services through prevention education, responsive services, and collaboration with community members. Yet, there is a dearth of literature as to whether pre-service school counselors are prepared to deal with substance abuse issues. The purpose of this study was to evaluate pre-service substance abuse training provided in CACREP accredited school counseling programs. The instrument utilized was entitled School Counselor Pre-Service Preparation in Grief/Loss and Substance Abuse Counseling. The survey included three questions concerning substance abuse training for pre-service school counselors and three questions concerning Grief/Loss training. The substance abuse questions and data were utilized for this particular study. The surveys were mailed to a total of 150 CACREP accredited school counseling programs, and 79 programs responded to the survey, resulting in a response rate of 53 percent. The results revealed that the majority of CACREP accredited programs in this study offered substance abuse training through either required or elective coursework. Limitations of the study, implications for CACREP accredited programs, and recommendations for future research are also discussed. / Graduation date: 2004

Western Governments have been obliged to tackle illicit substance abuse by focusing on health issues, this has resulted in preventative policies that direct drug education through schools. As a consequence there are hundreds of drug education programs and the majority are competing for funding under the same auspice. Victoria's response has been to develop a prevention program known as Get Real and phase it into Victorian schools over a three year period. / The three year period ended in 1999 and due to a change of Government the Get Real program has been re-funded for another 12 months, this is despite the fact there have been no formal evaluations conducted about its success or otherwise. / This program has been examined in relation to its own objectives and juxtaposed against two other main programs operating in schools in Australia. The results suggest Get Real is on the road to achieving its objectives which are to provide students with a realistic knowledge hasp about drugs and their effects. However, its broader goal which is to prevent illicit substance abuse cannot be evaluated because there are no studies that show its success or otherwise. / Based on the hypothesis thill drug education programs prevent illicit substance abuse in teenagers, Get Real's curriculum was compared with other similar programs and the research done on these programs suggest drug education programs do not successfully prevent illicit substance abuse. / The best Get Real and other programs can hope to achieve, is to provide realistic information and develop children's social skills and empower them with the knowledge and self esteem to make their own decisions. And to know that they alone are responsible for their choices and the consequences that follow from these choices.

Western Governments have been obliged to tackle illicit substance abuse by focusing on health issues, this has resulted in preventative policies that direct drug education through schools. As a consequence there are hundreds of drug education programs and the majority are competing for funding under the same auspice. Victoria's response has been to develop a prevention program known as Get Real and phase it into Victorian schools over a three year period. / The three year period ended in 1999 and due to a change of Government the Get Real program has been re-funded for another 12 months, this is despite the fact there have been no formal evaluations conducted about its success or otherwise. / This program has been examined in relation to its own objectives and juxtaposed against two other main programs operating in schools in Australia. The results suggest Get Real is on the road to achieving its objectives which are to provide students with a realistic knowledge hasp about drugs and their effects. However, its broader goal which is to prevent illicit substance abuse cannot be evaluated because there are no studies that show its success or otherwise. / Based on the hypothesis thill drug education programs prevent illicit substance abuse in teenagers, Get Real's curriculum was compared with other similar programs and the research done on these programs suggest drug education programs do not successfully prevent illicit substance abuse. / The best Get Real and other programs can hope to achieve, is to provide realistic information and develop children's social skills and empower them with the knowledge and self esteem to make their own decisions. And to know that they alone are responsible for their choices and the consequences that follow from these choices.

The present study examined cross-sectional and longitudinal developmental characteristics of the association between mental health and substance use. N=1182 adolescents aged between 11 and 20 years were recruited from schools in Australia. Participants completed the Youth Self Report (YSR) (Achenbach, 1991a) and reported on their use of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana, their social ability, their motivation for using substances, their ability to regulate emotion, and the influences of their parents and peers on their substance use. N=561 of time one participants were retained for testing one year later to assess the potential to predict substance use at time two from mental health at time one. Results indicated a clear and consistent cross-sectional association between externalising scores on the YSR and use of the three substances, regardless of gender. The relation between internalising scores and substance use was non-significant. When the relation between externalising scores and substance use was assessed for mediation, only the influence of parents and peers was found to be significant. A cross-sectional structural model developed to account for this association was demonstrated to be invariant across the three substances of interest, and across gender, but not age category. There was no evidence that social skills, emotion regulation, or substance use motives, had roles in mediating the relationship between mental health and substance use. A model was developed to assess the potential to predict substance use at time two from externalising scores at time one. Results showed that externalising scores predicted increases in alcohol use via parent and peer attitudes. Thus, externalising disposition, in the context of a facilitative social environment, was predictive of an increase in alcohol use over time. Structural models developed to account for the predictive relation between externalising scores and use of cigarettes and marijuana proved unstable and could not be tested. Substance use at time one was not predictive of externalising scores at time two. The results of the present research are discussed in relation to their potential to inform the developmental substance use literature, and efforts directed against the development of substance use problems. Limitations of the present research are noted.

The present study examined cross-sectional and longitudinal developmental characteristics of the association between mental health and substance use. N=1182 adolescents aged between 11 and 20 years were recruited from schools in Australia. Participants completed the Youth Self Report (YSR) (Achenbach, 1991a) and reported on their use of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana, their social ability, their motivation for using substances, their ability to regulate emotion, and the influences of their parents and peers on their substance use. N=561 of time one participants were retained for testing one year later to assess the potential to predict substance use at time two from mental health at time one. Results indicated a clear and consistent cross-sectional association between externalising scores on the YSR and use of the three substances, regardless of gender. The relation between internalising scores and substance use was non-significant. When the relation between externalising scores and substance use was assessed for mediation, only the influence of parents and peers was found to be significant. A cross-sectional structural model developed to account for this association was demonstrated to be invariant across the three substances of interest, and across gender, but not age category. There was no evidence that social skills, emotion regulation, or substance use motives, had roles in mediating the relationship between mental health and substance use. A model was developed to assess the potential to predict substance use at time two from externalising scores at time one. Results showed that externalising scores predicted increases in alcohol use via parent and peer attitudes. Thus, externalising disposition, in the context of a facilitative social environment, was predictive of an increase in alcohol use over time. Structural models developed to account for the predictive relation between externalising scores and use of cigarettes and marijuana proved unstable and could not be tested. Substance use at time one was not predictive of externalising scores at time two. The results of the present research are discussed in relation to their potential to inform the developmental substance use literature, and efforts directed against the development of substance use problems. Limitations of the present research are noted.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2007 / Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment for the degree of Master of Social Work. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 15-17, 39-42, 60-63).

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc. Psychology)--University of Waikato, 2008. / Title from PDF cover (viewed August 26, 2008) Includes bibliographical references (p. 93-109)