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The abuse of any form of illicit substance is referred as drug abuse. Excessive use of addictive (legal or illegal) substances is defined as utilizing them to the point that their effects become hazardous to the user's health. As the impact of drug abuse are disastrous to individuals and societies it is important to find what leads to it and how it can be prevented. This study focuses on the causes behind drug abuse and prevention strategies. The target group is female adolescents as most of the time target population in earlier research has been generalised to age or gender ignored women or age-specific women conditions. The interviews have been conducted with social workers in Maryland to investigate about the cause and prevention strategies of drug abuse regarding female adolescents. Maryland has been selected as it is one of the states with rate of drug abuse. The results have concluded causes as dysfunctional families, peer pressure, availability of drugs, and social media. Prevention strategies that have been concluded are family-based prevention strategies, community-based prevention, school-based prevention and cognitive behavioural therapy.

Adolescent drug use motivations were examined from the perspective of Erik Erikson's psychosocial theory (1963; 1968) of human development. The study used an existing data base derived from a sample of about 13,000 Arizona students in grades seven through twelve. Two questions were asked. The first examined the students' self-reported perceptions of drug use/nonuse motivations across the four ego-identity stages of Marcia (1966). The second examined drug use motivational perceptions within the four stages. First, approximately 13,000 Young People Survey (Jones, 1986) respondents were classified into the four ego-identity stages for each of two domains, Interpersonal and Ideological (Grotevant & Adams, 1984), according to rules suggested by Adams (1979). A random sample of approximately 200 of these respondents was then selected for the analyses for each of eight categories: Interpersonal achievement, moratorium, foreclosure, and diffusion; and Ideological achievement, moratorium, foreclosure, and diffusion. Subject responses to two survey questions were analyzed for the first research question. One survey question had asked the students why they thought people their age used drugs and alcohol, the second survey question asked students who had not used alcohol why they had not done so. The eight analyses revealed that the reported motivations were significantly different (p < .05) across all four ego-identity stages for both domains. The second research question analyzed responses to the survey question dealing with drug use motivations, and tested whether motivational responses discriminated marijuana users from nonusers within each of the four ego-identity stages. Each analysis produced statistically significant results. For achieved subjects, peers, recreation, and curiosity combined to discriminate marijuana users from nonusers (p < .05). For moratorium subjects, it was peers, recreation, and stress (p < .05). For foreclosed subjects, peers, curiosity, and recreation discriminated between users and nonusers (p < .05); and for diffused subjects, it was peers, boredom, and recreation (p < .05). The study indicates that young people use psychoactive substances for reasons which vary according to their level of ego-identity development (psychosocial maturity). Additionally, the study indicates that adolescent drug use motivations also depend upon their experience with drugs.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2005. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains iv, 64 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 28-32).

published_or_final_version / abstract / Sociology / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Nursing Studies / Master / Master of Nursing

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