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An investigation of the relationship between adolescent substance abuse and personality in a residential treatment center
Over the past ten years there has been a dramatic
increase in the number of drug addicted teens in this
country. Accompanying this increase in drug usage of
adolescents has been an rise in the number of treatment and
evaluation centers to serve the adolescent drug abusing
population. Comprehensive and individualized assessment of
drug addicted teens is needed as the basis for adolescent
treatment programs. Many adolescent drug treatment programs
have relied primarily on in-house, informal questionnaires
to assess personality traits. There is a need for more
objective measures to assess personality traits in
adolescent drug addicted populations.
This study used information from intake interviews of
842 inpatient adolescents and examined the amount of drug
use in relationship to; personality, negative life events
(number of times arrested for drugs, number of times runaway
from home, number of suicide attempts, and
substance abuse) and gender.
Personality was assessed using the Minnesota
Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). This study
family history of
decreased the complexity of interpreting MMPI results by
reducing the scores to categories reflective of two common
personality traits found in drug addicted populations -
introversion and extroversion. Codetypes, which reflect the
subjects two most heightened clinical MMPI scales, were also
utilized in this study.
In this investigation personality traits of
introversion and extroversion were not found to be related
to amount of drug use, or gender. A heightened scale 4
(Psychopathic Deviate) was consistently found in this sample
of adolescent drug abusers. Gender differences were found
in membership in codetype group and in terms of total amount
of drug use. Females who reported a maternal family history
of substance abuse were more likely to use greater amounts
of drugs than males with either a maternal or paternal
family history of substance abuse. Negative life events
were found to differ by gender with females having higher
rates of suicide attempts than males, and males having
greater number of drug arrests than females.
A thorough assessment of maternal drug history for drug
addicted females, and treatment modalities focused on
personality types who score high on MMPI scale 4, may be
important issues to be considered in residential treatment
of drug addicted adolescents
Body image and personality predictors of eating disorder symptoms during the college years.
Abstract: Objective: Women entering college (N = 118) were longitudinally followed for 3 years with assessments of eating pathology (Restraint and Bulimia)
Experienced stressors and coping strategies among Iranian nursing students
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>College students are prone to stress due to the transitional nature of college life. High levels of stress are believed to affect students' health and academic functions. If the stress is not dealt with effectively, feelings of loneliness, nervousness, sleeplessness and worrying may result. Effective coping strategies facilitate the return to a balanced state, reducing the negative effects of stress.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed to determine sources of stress and coping strategies in nursing students studying at the Iran Faculty of Nursing & Midwifery. All undergraduate nursing students enrolled in years 1-4 during academic year 2004-2005 were included in this study, with a total of 366 questionnaires fully completed by the students. The Student Stress Survey and the Adolescent Coping Orientation for Problem Experiences Inventory (ACOPE) were used for data collection.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Most students reported "finding new friends" (76.2%), "working with people they did not know" (63.4%) as interpersonal sources of stress, "new responsibilities" (72.1%), "started college" (65.8%) as intrapersonal sources of stress more than others. The most frequent academic source of stress was "increased class workload" (66.9%) and the most frequent environmental sources of stress were being "placed in unfamiliar situations" (64.2%) and "waiting in long lines" (60.4%). Interpersonal and environmental sources of stress were reported more frequently than intrapersonal and academic sources. Mean interpersonal (P=0.04) and environmental (P=0.04) sources of stress were significantly greater in first year than in fourth year students. Among coping strategies in 12 areas, the family problem solving strategies, "trying to reason with parents and compromise" (73%) and "going along with family rules" (68%) were used "often or always" by most students. To cope with engaging in demanding activity, students often or always used "trying to figure out how to deal with problems" (66.4%) and "trying to improve themselves" (64.5%). The self-reliance strategy, "trying to make their own decisions" (62%); the social support strategies, "apologizing to people" (59.6%), "trying to help other people solve their problems" (56.3%), and "trying to keep up friendships or make new friends" (54.4%); the spiritual strategy, "praying" (65.8%); the seeking diversions strategy, "listening to music" (57.7%), the relaxing strategy "day dreaming" (52.5%), and the effort to "be close with someone cares about you" (50.5%) were each used "often or always" by a majority of students. Most students reported that the avoiding strategies "smoking" (93.7%) and "drinking beer or wine" (92.9%), the ventilating strategies "saying mean things to people" and "swearing" (85.8%), the professional support strategies "getting professional counseling" (74.6%) and "talking to a teacher or counselor" (67.2%) and the humorous strategy "joking and keeping a sense of humor" (51.9%) were used "seldom or never".</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>First year nursing students are exposed to a variety of stressors. Establishing a student support system during the first year and improving it throughout nursing school is necessary to equip nursing students with effective coping skills. Efforts should include counseling helpers and their teachers, strategies that can be called upon in these students' future nursing careers.</p