This is the third blog post in a series of three here at AddictionNews on the subject of building resilience in children. In the first post, we looked at how to use storytelling to build resilience in children. Using guided storytelling, storyboarding, collaging, and journaling, children can work through issues of setting goals and controlling their own behavior to achieve better results.

The second post in the series looked at a brand new randomized, controlled trial of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy for toddlers. The therapy, already proven to work with problem preschoolers and school-aged children, has been revamped for children aged 12-24 months. Mostly a therapy for caregivers in how to pay attention to and respond to emotional signals from the baby, the therapy also includes games for toddlers that reward listening and expressing.

Today we will look at efforts to strengthen the willpower of children and adolescents. A meta study in the journal Pediatrics examined the effectiveness of substance use prevention programs for school-aged children. The researchers looked at 91 studies involving 16 different programs such as DARE, PALS, LST, Project ALERT, and Project Choice. The programs dealt with alcohol resistance, drug resistance, smoking resistance, and generalized resistance training.

Two results stood out for the researchers:

LST = Life Skills Training. Resulted in demonstrated reductions in the use of mind-altering substances. “LST has robust evidence to support its effectiveness, particularly in comparison with other programs in which only a small proportion of studies revealed positive effects over a limited range of outcomes.”

DARE = Drug Abuse Resistance Education. “DARE had no statistically significant impact on psychoactive substance use among youth across 92% of the 14 studies included in this review, despite DARE being described as the most widely implemented substance abuse prevention program in the world.”

Regarding the other programs, the different techniques used and the different ways they were implemented made it difficult to measure the results and impossible to compare the results across studies. Therefore, researchers were unable to do a statistical meta-analysis and confined their results to a narrative review.

A 2021 study of 200 adolescents aged 10-18 years examined risk-taking behavior and how it is influenced by peer pressure. Researchers from the Institute of Applied Psychology at the University of Punjab in Lahore, Pakistan, concluded:

[T]here was a significant positive relationship between sensation seeking and risk-taking behavior in adolescents and there was a significant positive relationship between peer influences and risk-taking behavior in adolescents.

Boys scored higher on risk-taking behavior and sensation seeking. Girls scored higher on peer influence. Sensation seeking was measured using the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale, which uses agree/disagree statements to assess attitudes about boredom susceptibility, thrill seeking, adventure seeking, experience seeking, and disinhibition.

Resistance to peer pressure was measured with the Resistance to Peer Influence Scale. The scale asks students to select from a pair of answers the one that most closely matches their views. The questions are designed to see if students are more likely to follow their own judgment or what their friends think.

Risk-taking behavior was measured with the Stimulating and Instrumental Risk-Taking Questionnaire, which has 10 questions dealing with stimulating risk-taking and seven questions covering instrumental risk-taking. Stimulating risk-taking is doing something for the thrill of it, without really considering potential consequences. Instrumental risk-taking is a planned, calculated risk to achieve a desired goal.

Among other things, researchers found, “There was a significant positive relationship in age and total risk-taking behavior.” The older students got, the more risky behavior they engaged in. Regarding peer pressure, the researchers found, not surprisingly, “a significant positive relationship between peer influences and risk-taking behavior and stimulating risk-taking behavior while no relationship with instrumental risk-taking behavior.”

One of the conclusions we can take away from these two studies is that the influence of peers is much more significant to youths than educational programming such as DARE. Establishing peer support for substance abuse resistance should greatly strengthen the ability of teens to resist mind-altering substances or to use them in moderation.

Written by Steve O’Keefe. First published November 27, 2024.

Sources:

“Primary Substance Use Prevention Programs for Children and Youth: A Systematic Review,” Pediatrics, September 2020.

“Sensation Seeking, Peer Influence, and Risk-Taking Behavior in Adolescents,” Education Research International, March 2021.

Image Copyright: Printerval, used under Creative Commons license.