Family Systems of Adolescent Substance Abusers

1990 Research paper

Substance abuse among school age children has become a major topic of interest in educational issues and counseling Journals. The 1990 issue of Education Digest listed nearly 20 articles just under the heading Substance Abuse. Several delt with the aspect of school and family in relation to preventing, recognizing and treating substance abuse.
Family Relations carried three articles in the July l989 issue alone, dealing with family behaviors, relationship skills and general family involvement in treatments.
Principal magazine carried an article "Drug Proofing the School." The main emphasis in this article again, was recognizing behaviors, relationships necessary in preventing and treating substance abuse.
In the Snowflake School District, there are two active programs being used for substance abuse education, for the benefit of both the staff and the students. Here's Looking you 2000 is an integrated grade level presentation beginning with recognition of dangerors of drugs, and developing into relationship skills and methods of recognizing and avoiding dangerous situations with peers. Materials, lesson plans, objectives are all provided for the teachers use.
D.A.R.E. is a presentation made by the police department to 6th graders within the classroom over a period of weeks. The students are awarded D.A.R.E. T-shirts on completion of the materials.
It is evident that if a policeman comes to school once a year to talk about drug abuse, and Jack the drug dealer is there everyday, which one will have the greater impact and along that same line of thought, if the drug dealer is one of the schools most respected teachers,and a secret drug abuser himself how much more influence will he have toward the negative side of the problem than can be fixed by a few lessons. It is apparant that the police force cannot work alone if significant progress is to be made in this vital area.
Statistics show that by the time students finish school, l7 percent will have tried cocaine and as many as l2 percent will be regular users. The number of students smoking crack is already double what it was in l986. Many people think elementary school children are too young to be drug users, but they are wrong. Drugs have become so accessible that many young children are experimenting with them. They often get introduced to marijuana and even cocaine by older children in school or in their neighborhood.
"The drug traffickers have targeted the American school house as a major point of sale, especially in the inner city. Tough anit-drug speeches by police officers have only a limited impact. To effectively combat the problem, a school must have a proactive anti-drug program in effect from Septemeber though June."
Drug testing and locker searches may be heandline grabbing examples of how some schools are fighting drugs, but training staff to recognize early symptoms of drug use not only in children but among themselves may be more beneficial. Training a teaching staff about the effects of drugs on the students provides as useful mechanism to keep the educators themselves free of drug problems. Just as the horrors of drug use touch all ages, so should the drug abuse program. If a comphrehensive program is implemented from k-6 the chances of having a drug free school are greatly increased.
An effective prevention program will train faculty , staff and students in the following:
What to look for:
1. pysical manifestations: red eyes and drowsiness. Users often try to conceal them by wearing sunglasses or chewing mints to cover the oder of alcohol or marijuana.
2. Mood swings, irritability, decreased confidence and financial difficulties.
3. company students keep, younger children with older ones, escpecially those with poor reputations.
4. Unusual drop in performance by a teacher or student could indicate possible drug problem.
What to do:
A good drug awareness program should make students realize that teachers can do drugs, and that students can and should speak up if they notice suspicious things about a teacher.
GETTING HELP: With student it is not only the right but the duty of the principal to get the student involved in a substance abuse program through the school or private agency. National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors have recommendations for programs in the area. Drug abuse can be a problem in any school, and teachers and staff are not immune to substance abuse. The most important issue in prevention is an effective drug awareness program in the school and available counseling and help to extend to family members.
Too often, when children are referred to the parents for help, it is the parents who have been involved in substance abuse and been the model for the children. Attention to the students' family and relations is a major important issue in dealing with the growing abuse. Community counseling, church counseling, Parent teacher organizations, the police department, welfare department and all agencies that deal with children in their families are responsible for work in preventing substance abuse.
Researchers heave identified types of children who are more "at risk"" for taking drugs; these are the children whose social, school or family situations make them more likely to start experimenting with drugs such as alcohol, nicotine, or marijuana.
The list that has been compiled gives characteristics similar to those of children who have gotten into trouble with drugs.
The child does poorly in school.
The child is unable to get along with others.
Someone in the child's home has a drug problem.
The child's peers or older children they play with use drugs.
The child does not like school, and feels as if he doesn't belong there. Rules and discipline in the home are unclear or inconsistent,.
The child continually resists authority.
Each lesson in the Here's looking at you curriculum is supplemented by various activities. It is important for children to know that dependence on alcohol and other drugs is a disease, and that they are treatable disease; it is also important for them to know that they are not the only ones with the problem in their family. Here's Looking at You teaches this and points out that while alcoholism is a disease, the child did not cause the disease and the child cannot cure it. It lets the children know that help is available, and to whom they can turn for help.
Again the Here's Looking at You program points out that much of the research indicates that unless parents take positive steps to teach their children about drug use, more than half of all students will end up using drugs by the time they graduate from high school". Parents are role models, and especially young children depend on parents to tell them what to do and to show them how to behave.
In training the parents to teach their children how to avoid drug abuse, the following messages are important:
You are special and it's up to you to take care of your body.
Drug abuse is not normal or healthy behavior, for children or adults.
Your family is unique, and you should depend on it for support, caring and guidance.
You have to abide by certain rules, and it helps to know what the rules are and to understand why they were made.
Education is important part of your life.
Letters to parents are sent home defining these objectives. Activity papers go home with every lesson to explain the lesson, and children are encouraged to speak with their parents about problems.
Also actively used in the District is the D.A.R.E. program for sixth graders. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education. D.A.R.E. was started by Los Angeles police chief Darryl Gates. He found that 80% of crime in L.A. was drug related. The police department and school developed the program. It is in over 40 states and some foreign countries along with many department of defense schools.
Our High School and Junior High each have programs to further reinforce the skills and knowledge necessary to prevent substanance abuse.
The school programs stress awareness, knowledge and skills to avoid and say no to drugs. It has been stressed that we can no longer be satisfied to tell our children, "Just Say No", but must teach them how to do it and when to do it. Within the context of the lessons, activities are generated that allow the children to practice saying no, either by making up an excuse or confronting the perpetrator, usually a peer, with direct questions. The Refusal Skills that are taught in D.A.R.E. focus more on just getting out of the situation at hand, while the Here's Looking at You teaches specific skills which when learned and used will help the students keep friends, have fun, stay out of trouble and stay in control.
1. Ask questions.
2. Name the trouble.
3 Identify the consequences
4 Suggest an alternative.
5. Move it, sell it, and leave the door open, by telling their friend, if you change your mind. . ."

Skills for what to do under pressure are:
1. stay calm,
2. say the person's name, and make eye contact.
3. say, "Listen to me."
4. Pause.
5. Continue using the skill

Various companies such as Radio Shack, APS and others have published comic books and other attractive materials to be used in the classroom as well as in the homes in teaching children to avoid substance abuse. But when it is all packaged, published and presented, it is still the family and home environment that needs the attention. Organizations in the community such as STEPS ( Snowflake Taylor Educators Parents Sudents) have prepared Parents' Resource Handbook. Parenting classes, home visits, raising parent awareness and desire to help teach the children, giving them the materials and the skills to pass on and drying out the alcholoic and adicted parents is the beginning of the trends in education for the twenty first century. With tremendous contributions from giant companies to the meager offer e. ings of each volunteer in the community, steps are being taken to wipe out drug abuse and make the United States and other countries drug free
BIBLIOGRAPHY



SKILLS FOR ADOLESCENCE; Developed by Lions Clubs International and Quest International:
Changes! Becoming the Best You Can Be
Activities and Assignments, Student Work book.
The Surprising Years; Understanding your Changing Adolescent, A Book for Parents.


Hanna Barbera: Yogi Bear D,A.R.E., for teaching kids to never take drugs; For the Family

Tandy Computer: WhizKids, A deadly Choice

S.T.E.P.S. Parents' Resource Book for a Drug Free Community
Here's Looking at You, 2000; A teacher's Guide for Drug Education, Robers, Fitzmahan & Associates Educational Service District #121

D.A.R.E. DRUG ABUSE RESISTANCE EDUCATION



Biblioography for Substance Abuse research paper




Family Systems of Adolescent Substance Abusers. Family Relations v38 n3 p266-72 Jul 1989

The Use of Family Behavior Loop Mapppping for Substance Abuse. Family Relations v38 n3 p 282-87.

Developing family Relationship Skills to prevent Substance Abuse among High Risk youth. Family Relations v38 n3 p 301-05 Jul 1989

Involving Families in Substance Abuse Prevention. Family Relations v38 n3p306 n3 p306-10 Jul 1989

Drug-Proofing the School. Principal v69 n2 kp38-39 Nov 11989