South Africa has been witnessing an escalation in drug use amongst adolescents in
high school. Thus, the main question that motivated this research was: How can a
psycho-educational programme, using a selected audio-visual media resource, assist
teachers and parents in an effort to prevent adolescent students’ substance abuse
problem behaviour?
Social cognitive theory (SCT) and self-efficacy theory (SET) were used as a
conceptual framework. The study explained these theories in-depth. Adolescent
substance abuse was also studied as well as programmes to address this problem.
This was followed by a perusal of numerous audio-visual resources for their possible
incorporation into prevention programmes. The ‘Above The Influence’ (ATI) resource
was selected for the psycho-educational programme which was designed for the
study. The programme was put into action during seven sessions over a period of
about two months, and implemented with a group of 26 Grade 10 and Grade 11
students in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, to evaluate its relevance for adolescent
substance abuse prevention. To evaluate the programme, a qualitative approach was used. The data were
gathered during the programme implementation by means of in-person and online
focus groups, individual interviews, written open-ended questions, observation notes
and follow-up interviews some time after the programme had ended. Eleven
principles were identified from the literature to evaluate the potential of the
programme to be effective in preventing adolescent substance abuse. In particular
the programme needed to increase adolescents’ skills related to studying,
communication, peer relationships, self-efficacy, assertiveness, and drug resistance.
The programme also had to employ interactive techniques and needed to address
the type of drug abuse problem in the local community, for example, the ‘gateway’
substances of marijuana, alcohol and tobacco. In addition, the programme potential
was evaluated in the light of SCT and SET. The findings indicated that the psycho-educational programme, using ATI as audiovisual
medium, can be used very effectively by teachers to raise students’ awareness
and develop particular skills that could contribute towards the prevention of adolescent substance abuse. It is recommended that the programme should be used
in the long-term with repeated reinforcing sessions over time. / Psychology of Education / D. Ed. (Psychology of Education)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/8127 |
| Date | 08 1900 |
| Creators | Calder, Bruce Donovan |
| Contributors | Schulze, Salomé |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (xiii, 235 leaves) : illustrations, application/pdf |
| Rights | University of South Africa |
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