Relationship Between Peers and Adolescent - Essay Example

Analysis Paper Adolescence is the development stage that is characterized by an extremely high risk for the beginning of extensive use of drugs and alcohol. Though little experimentation during this stage is expected, substance and alcohol abuse, when overdone, causes disorders. Clark and his co-authors have classified the common predictors of adolescent drug and alcohol use into environmental risks, phenotypic risks and heritable factors (Clark et al., 2010). These three broad factors have different relations among themselves.

This paper primarily focuses on identifying and describing family-related, peer-related and individual characteristics that have been shown to correlate with drug and alcohol abuse of the adolescent. It also discusses the connection between each system risk factor and information related to the family correlations of substance abuse and parenting issues. Heritable predictors are usually replicated in the family patterns relating to substance use disorders. For example, an adolescent living in a family where the parents are drug and substance abusers is susceptible to inherit these characteristics.

Environmental risk factors, on the other hand, include the total surrounding of the adolescent, which includes family functioning as a unit (McWhirter et al., 2012). This explains the aspect of the adolescent attempting drugs because his or her family members, especially parents, are not setting a good example. Poor parenting practices can also make an adolescent develop the abuse of substance and alcohol. Child mistreatment has also been proven to be a significant aspect of adolescent drug and substance abuse because the adolescent may feel rejected and resort to the use drugs and alcohol.

The adolescent may also feel that the only way to remedy self-anger and depression is using substances and alcohol. Poor parental monitoring is also a significant predictor of adolescent drug and substance abuse. Adolescence, as a sensitive stage of a child’s development, should always be handled and monitored carefully since children try out things considerably due to peer pressure (Clark et al., 2010). Peer pressure is perceived as the most influential under these environmental risk factors.

Peers are also given the same role as the parents in terms of observing and persuading. An adolescent usually imitates the deeds of his or her peers and even in some situations, the ones who have already adapted the use of drugs and substances will choose like-minded friends. A study by Bray and his co-researchers (2003) indicates that in both directions of sway, input to substance abuse is a common phenomenon amongst the adolescents (Dorius et al., 2004). However, individual factors are not widely explained in most dynamics, but rather are psychologically based.

They are under environmental risk factors and primarily relate to traumatic events that phenotypically predict adolescent substance and alcohol abuse such as emotional deregulation. At the individual adolescent level, most common features are separation and seditiousness relating to a weak connection of the child to the parents and non-adherence to communal decrees and customs. Therefore, the study indicates that to comprehend the significance of these individual risk factors, a disparity of the impact to the domain of adolescent should be made (Dorius et al., 2004). Additionally, initiation into the use of drugs relates to inter-personal situational factors.

All these aspects correlate to parenting issues because adolescence is a stage in a child’s life. The relationship between parenting practices and adolescent drug and substance abuse results partly from parental use of the same drugs and substances as shown by the study by Clark and colleagues (McWhirter et al., 2012). The parents are sometimes considered as the modellers of adolescent drug and alcohol abuse. This is also evident in a study by Barnes and his colleagues, which identified that the effects of parental alcohol abuse on the adolescent were primarily brought by less monitoring of the child and less emotional support (Nation & Heflinger, 2006).

The three effects, observed by all the studies, have depicted three main aspects of parenting to cause adolescent abuse of drugs like marijuana. These include non- alcoholic specific parenting factors like the parent’s socio-economic status, increased belligerence, and violence in the family (Nation & Heflinger, 2006). The second is alcohol specific parenting factor: parents under alcohol abuse are usually expected to misbehave uncontrollably. The last factor under parenting is the genetic factor.

This simply relates to the inherent alcohol disorders an adolescent can inherit from the parents. The presence of a substance use disorder trait in a parent has been proved by the studies to be a very strong risk factor for adolescent abuse of alcohol and substance (McWhirter et al., 2012). Although it is necessary to recognize risk factors for exact substance use disorder, increased prominence to finding mutual problems for all substance use disorders is vital since the researchers also agree that concentrating on these aids in finding new preclusion methods is important.

In summary, the predictors of adolescent drug and substance abuse are varied and wide-ranging. The leading aspect being on parental monitoring, especially the family factors, appears to be the key to early initiation to drug use. Family factors are also significant since the family is the smallest unit that shapes the development of a child and may serve to protect him/her against an early onset of substance abuse. References Clark, C., & Clinton, T., Straub, J. (2010). Quick-Reference Guide to Counseling Teenagers, The.

Miami: Baker Books. Dorius, C. J., Bahr, S. J., Hoffmann, J. P., & Harmon, E. L. (29 JUL 2004). Parenting Practices as Moderators of the Relationship Between Peers and Adolescent Marijuana Use. Journal of Marriage and Family Volume 66, Issue 1 , 163–178. McWhirter, J. F., McWhirter, B. T., McWhirter, E. H., & McWhirter, R. J. (2012). At Risk Youth: A Comprehensive Response : for Counselors, Teachers, Psychologists, and Human Service Professionals (5th ed). Belmont: BROOKS COLE Publishing Company.

Nation, M., & Heflinger, C. A. (2006). Risk Factors for Serious Alcohol and Drug Use: The Role of Psychosocial Variables in Predicting the Frequency of Substance Use Among Adolescents. American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse Vol. 32, No. 3 , 415-433.