Preamble
The transitional period of adolescence presents itself as an especially critical and vulnerable time for the onset of substance use and abuse with its impact on the adolescents’ normal development, future substance addiction, and other risky behaviours. A vast amount of research has documented risk and protective factors associated with substance use and misuse (Schulte & Hser 2014). While much of this research has focused on individual, peer, familial, and genetic correlates of substance misuse (Whitesell, et.al., 2013), a growing subset has focused on neighbourhood environments as determinants of individual behaviours like substance use.
Question
a. Using your knowledge of the myriad problems associated with different domains of adolescent development studied in this course, identify and discuss three societal risk factors and three individual risk factors of substance abuse among the adolescents especially in the Caribbean.
b. Examine three psychosocial consequences of substance abuse on the adolescents’ wellbeing and successful transition into adulthood in the Caribbean.
c. Discuss the parental and the societal roles in curbing the problem of substance abuse among the teens in the Caribbean.
Provide examples to illustrate your answers, cite relevant literature (including Caribbean studies) from credible sources and refer to two developmental theories (not John Bowlby’s Attachment theory and Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial theory) to support your answers. Also use at least 3 scholarly Caribbean articles.
