NCJ Number
130837
Date Published
1991
Length
112 pages
Annotation
This book reviews the causes, prevention, and treatment of substance abuse among American children and adolescents with attention to the design, implementation, and evaluation of intervention programs to reduce the risk of substance abuse among youth.
Abstract
An examination of the patterns, prevalence, and current trends of substance abuse among adolescents in the United States is followed by a discussion of the etiologic factors related to substance abuse. The latter encompass cognitive, psychological, attitudinal, social, personality, pharmacological, and developmental factors as well as knowledge and normative expectations. A review of substance-abuse prevention approaches encompasses traditional approaches, psychosocial approaches, mass-media approaches, and community-based approaches. A discussion of substance-abuse treatment approaches for adolescents covers outpatient and inpatient treatment as well as treatment in residential communities. Examples of these three types of programs are briefly described. A chapter on the evaluation of interventions considers purposes of evaluation, three types of evaluation, evaluation models, measures and methods, evaluation instruments, and research design and methodological issues. The concluding chapter discusses the dissemination of effective intervention programs. 180 references and author and subject indexes