A Study Of The Relationship Between The Adolescent Self Concept And Drug Use

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ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 49 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (854 download)

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Download or read book The Relationship Between Multiple Concepts of Self, Self-reflection, and Substance Use Among At-risk Adolescents written by and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Previous research has shown that the likelihood to engage in self-reflection increases during adolescence due to changes in cognition that occur during this stage of development. Importantly, however, more research is needed to examine other factors that might predict self-reflection in adolescence, and the role of self-reflection for adolescents who are identified as 'at-risk' for negative outcomes, such as substance use and concepts of negative future selves. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether concepts of self in relationship to others, to culture, and to nature is associated with self-reflection, substance use, and concepts of future selves among at-risk adolescents. This is the first study to examine the relationship between factors in these different domains as well as the relative strength of associations between these factors and other outcome variables. In addition, a growing body of research provides evidence for an influence of nature on psychological well-being, but very little research has examined the role of nature in adolescents' concepts of self. In the present study, the sample consisted of 38 Latino adolescents (15- to 20-years of age) who were identified as being at-risk for dropping out of high school. Data collection consisted of surveys that included: the Self-Reflection and Insight Scale for Youth (SRIS-Y), the Inclusion of Other in Self scale (IOS), the Inclusion of Nature in Self scale (INS), the Measure of Perceived Social Support (MPSS), a scale measuring current and predicted substance use, as well as novel items measuring Inclusion of Culture in the Self, cultural pride, beliefs about spending time in nature in the future, and beliefs about practicing culture in the future. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were conducted to assess the relationships between factors. The results showed that self-reflection was not significantly related to concepts of self in relation to others, culture, or nature, nor was self-reflection related to substance use, or concepts of future selves. However, concepts of self in relation to nature, culture, and others all had significant positive correlations between one another, as well as significant positive correlations with positive future selves and negative correlations with negative future selves. There were also positive correlations between concepts of self in relation to culture and substance use, as well as positive correlations between concepts of positive future selves and substance use. These results suggest that multiple domains may play a role in the development of concepts of possible future selves among adolescents who are identified as being at risk for negative outcomes, such as dropping out of high school, and that at-risk adolescents may be developing positive associations with substance use. Multiple regression analyses showed that a belief about spending time in nature was particularly important for at-risk adolescents' concepts of future selves, underscoring the need for more research examining the implications of connectedness to nature in adolescent development. Future research should examine the effectiveness of interventions that emphasize multiple domains of self-concept on positive outcomes for at-risk minority adolescents.