Exploring Adolescent Alcohol and Drug Abuse: A DLC Perspective

This essay provides a developmental and life course criminology (DLC) perspective on adolescent alcohol and drug abuse, a significant international problem. It discusses the prevalence of drug and alcohol use among adolescents, the developmental challenges contributing to this behavior, and the long-term consequences into adulthood. The essay also examines risk and protective factors, including family environment, peer pressure, and socio-economic status. It references theories such as Moffitt's theory of delinquency and Sampson and Laub's Age-Graded Social Control Theory to explain the continuity of antisocial behavior from adolescence to adulthood. The essay concludes by highlighting the importance of interventions and addressing the adult outcomes associated with adolescent substance abuse, such as relationship problems and socio-economic instability. Desklib provides a platform to access such past papers and assignments.

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DEVELOPMENTAL AND LIFE COURSE CRIMINOLOGY
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University Name
Author’s note

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Introduction
Alcohol and drug abuse has been a major problem among the adolescents internationally.
As per the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) about 5 % of the adolescent
population are addicted to drug and alcohol. This paper will discuss about the drug and the
alcohol abuse among the adolescent population, the developmental challenges that gives rise to
the destructive behavior. The paper will also discuss about the adult outcomes related to the
chosen problem behavior along with some interventions for the selected target group.
Specific adolescent problem/ behaviour
The consumption of alcohol and drugs is one of the major cause of preventable disease
and illness in Australia. The age of initiation of drugs and alcohols has been found to have been
increased between 1995 to 2016 for tobacco smoking and alcohol intake (Australian government,
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2017). The daily rates of smoking have decreased
between 2001 and 2016 for both the males and females. As per the data of ABS, in the year
2016, 42 % of the young adults between the ages 18-24 has been found to be exceeding single
occasion risk guidelines by the consumption on average more than four standards drink on one
occasion. In 2016, 15.3 % of the young adults have been found to have been experimented with
illicit drugs. Experimentation with drugs and alcohol is a part of the lives of many young people.
Younger generation are more susceptible to permanent damage from alcohol and other drugs
(Jaworska & MacQueen, 2015).

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According to the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) had stated
that anyone aged under 18 should not drink as they can be harmful to the physical and the
psychological development of young people. Binge drinking is one of the most common among
the young adolescents. Drugs like cannabis, methamphetamine is in vogue among Australian
adolescents. For both the males and females, drug induced death have been 26% higher in 2016
than that of 2010 (Chakravarthy, Shah & Lotfipour, 2013).
There are several reasons as of why the adolescent group gets addicted drugs. Amy
factors such as the availability of the drugs in the neighbourhood, community and the schools
and peer pressure. The family ambience is also responsible for the illicit drug use (Chakravarthy,
Shah & Lotfipour, 2013). Violence, physical or emotional abuse in the household increases the
likelihood of the addiction.
Rampant consumption of alcohol and illicit drug use can have several long term
consequences on both the physical and mental health of then young people. It increases the rate
of criminal cases, violent and risk behaviour, getting involved in illegal and antisocial activities
and rash driving.
Developmental challenges of adolescence
The adolescence refers to the period of the making the transition from childhood to
adulthood. It is associated with a period of risk taking behaviour as well as an increased
emotional reactivity. This is typically coincident with the changes in the school and the social
environment, such as spending less time with the parents and more with the peers. They become
often vulnerable to drug and alcohol habits ( Pierce et al., 2017). There are both external
environmental factors that elicit or reinforce behaviours. According to Motiff, adolescents

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displaying a pattern of anti-social behaviour that begins in early life and continuous through the
adulthood and the adolescence. A biosocial perspective involves that the developmental
behaviours might be due to any neuropsychosocial deficiencies and adverse developmental
ambience (Miller, 2014). According to Motiff, the offenders generally indulge in relatively
minor delinquency upon entering the adulthood. As the adolescence grows up, there becomes a
difference between the biological maturity and the social maturity of independence causing a
maturity gap, and in order to satisfy those maturity gaps the adolescent offenders does wrong
needs (Nedelec, Park & Silver, 2016). Pierce et al., (2017) in an experiment has employed a
sample of Dutch Males and the females , that examined the extent to which the biological
maturation and the social autonomy influenced parental conflict and whether the association
affected the adolescent delinquency and alcohol or substance abuse. According to the literature,
the biological maturity and the social maturity have an influence on the likelihood of the
antisocial behaviour displayed by the youth. Again, Mofitt had argued that the offenders engage
in a process of ‘social mimicry” of the adult like and the independent behaviour of the offenders.
In relation to this Mofitt had stated that peer pressure and peer selection acts as a dominant factor
in the process of social mimicry (Leaw et al., 2016). Moffitt had again argued that one of the
string contributing factor to the development of offending is the neuropsychological
malfunctioning and executive functioning deficits linked to impulsivity are particularly poignant.
Sampson and Laub had developed a theory in order to understand to explain childhood
antisocial behaviour adolescent delinquency and adult crime. As per the age graded theory of
Informal social control in an attempt to explain the antisocial behaviour of a child (Laub,
Sampson, & Sweeten, 2017). The main component of the theory is that delinquency and crime
has a very inverse relationship with an individual bonds to the society (Banducci, Hoffman,

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Lejuez & Koenen, 2014). It is known that the informal family and school social controls are the
major social structures, influencing the behaviour in childhood having a strong likelihood of
continuing through adulthood across a variety of life domains. The age graded theory of informal
social control had also suggested that the social and the structural factors like unemployment,
family disruption , unemployment, residential mobility, socio-economic status, affects the
delinquency via the social bonds. These factors are structural as they determine the structural
position of an individual in the society. Some of the studies have indicated towards the fact that
socio-economic disadvantage have indirect effects on delinquencies (Farrington, 2017). Some of
the other factors that cannot be overlooked are poverty and household crowding, that disrupts the
bonds of the attachments between the child and the parents or the child and the school. Weak
social bonds has always been one of the important factor for explaining the continuity across the
adolescents and the adulthood.
Associated risk and protective factors
Prevention of drug and alcohol abuse among the adolescents require awareness of the
characteristics that place the youths at the risks. Several factors like exposure to drugs, socio-
economic status, the way parenting was done, peer pressure and biological predisposition
towards drug addiction. Chakravarthy and Lotfipour, (2013), has measured several correlations
between several childhood experiences and drug related abusive behavior. Some of the
childhood adverse events included physical, emotional or sexual abuse, neglect (physical or
emotional), growing up with the household abuse, criminality of the household members, mental
illness among the household members , parental discord and illicit drug use. Gutierrez and Sher,
(2015) has identified some of the risk factors prevalence in the societal or the community level
and at the individual level. Of the different societal factors identified, the author had focused on

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the laws and norms favorable to the disruptive behavior of the adolescent. The personal features
that correlates with drug and alcohol abuse are many and includes low harm avoidance, parents
having past history of alcoholism and drug abuse , high levels of family conflict , lack of
inconsistent parental discipline, a history of academic failure and a history of antisocial and
hostile behavior (Hyshka, 2013).
The protective factors for drug and alcohol abuse among the adolescent people involves
self-control, parental monitoring , academic competence , antidrug policies and a strong
neighborhood attachments, engagement and connection in more than one of the following
contexts: at school, with peers, in sports, religion ,cultures (Hyshka, 2013). Some of the other
protective factors involves the supportive relationship with the family members, clear
expectations for the values and the behaviors, development of the subjective sense of self
sufficiency, making of independent decisions and becoming independent financially.
It is well documented, the children who are susceptible to drug and alcohol abuse are
more related to criminal and antisocial activities. According to Moffit’s theory of delinquency, it
is suggested that the at –risk youths are divided into two groups and might become important in
the adolescent years. She believes that life course persistent group exhibits antisocial behavior
since childhood, which can be due to some neuropsychological impairment in early years (Leaw
et al., 2016). On the other hand the adolescent limited group starts life in a typical fashion and
begins to behave antisocially as they encounter a maturity gap. This gaps arises as their needs for
freedom, materialistic things and sexual contacts are emerging during their puberty period
(Jaworska, & MacQueen, 2015). According to this theory, the antisocial behavior and the
criminal offences among the youth increases due to the fact, that adolescent limited youth feel
the need to perform the antisocial behavior to lessen the psychological burden that they

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experience from the maturity gap (Nedelec, Park & Silver, 2016). This is again fueled by peer
pressure. However, Nedelec, Park and Silver, (2016) stated that the adolescent youths would stop
behaving antisocially with the commencement of the adolescent period.
Again according to Sampson and Laub's Age-graded Social Control Theory, the criminal
involvement results due to lack of social control barriers throughout the life.
Drug and crime has been in close association in all around the world. An explanation of
tis association falls in to three groups. One is the forward causation that is use of drugs either
through then need to fund for drug use through economic necessity and psychopharmacological
changes precipitate by the ingestion of the drugs. Second is the reverse causation, which refers to
involvement with the crime leading to drug use, confounding, that is drug use and crime
occurring due to a common cause or sets of causes. Exposure to childhood abuse has been found
to be associated to drug abuse (Mandavia, Robinson, Bradley, Ressler & Powers, 2016). One
area of interest is the substance abuse disorders, where childhood abuse has been linked with
directly (Mandavia et al., 2016). Another factor that is also likely to contribute a role for the
development of the substance used problem is the emotional disregulation. Issues with emotional
disregulation might lead to difficulty in managing the negative emotional states, impair
functioning, affecting one’s ability to work, understand and be accepted by others (Mandavia et
al., 2016).
Adult outcomes/consequences of your selected adolescent problem behaviour
The selected adolescent problem behaviour has got several implications. Chakravarthy,
Shah & Lotfipour, (2013) have emphasised on the developmental model of cumulative
continuity that states that there is always a correlation between adolescent delinquency and the

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crime committed during the adult. Delinquency might continue in to the adulthood because of
the negative consequences because of the future life changes (Dvorak et al., 2016). For example,
official labelling, incarceration, school failure and unemployment. Delinquencies often weakens
the adult bonds and might lead to decreased opportunities in terms of opportunities,
employments. Adolescent individuals who had been engaged in drug abuse are likely to be
engaged in the antisocial activities of leads risky life style in the adulthood. They are more likely
to suffer from relationship problems in their later life and thus tends to be unsuccessful in terms
of socioeconomic status, employment. According to Sampson and Laub, there are several turning
points in the course of life like marriage, work and most of the adult transitions. The social ties
are inevitable of most of the adult transitions. Adults from delinquent background are likely to
fail in work and family relationships. As per the new version of this theory, the social bond
throughout the course of life helps to maintain persistence and desistance throughout the life.
Differences across groups in relation to your selected adolescent problem behaviour (e.g.,
gender and /or early v. late onset)
As per the National surveys it is shown that percentage of alcohol consumption is
different across various ethnic groups, including patterns of drinking related to a greater risk, for
the effects of alcohol. The rate of consumption is the greater amongst the Native Americans.
Various trajectories of drinking have been identified by the ethnic group. Aboriginals and the
Asians repot an early onset of drinking and drug abuse in comparison to the white Australians.
The rate of drinking was before the age of 15 and was lower for the female in comparison to the
male subjects across all the ethnic groups. The minority ethnic groups are the significant
protective factors for heavy drinking till the age of 32. Varying rates of alcohol consumption has
been found to be observed among the Aboriginal population. Linking this concept to the DLC

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theories, it had already been mentioned that sometimes adolescent belonging to ethnic minority
groups can be termed as life-course-persistent (LCP) offenders exhibiting the antisocial behavior
since childhood. Again, the disruptive behavior out of alcohol and drug abuse might be due to
peer influence and social circumstances.
Discuss options for interventions for your selected adolescent problem behaviour
Prevention of alcohol and drugs among the adolescents require several awareness of the
characteristics that places the youth at risk. Dvorak, et al., (2016) have stated several
interventions for reducing the disruptive e behaviour among the adolescents. Preventive
community based programs can be effective to address the multiple risk factor of the problem.
The preventive programs should be able to deliver appropriate information to the target group,
including materials to the young people to identify and resist the pressure against drug use. It
would also help in the development of individual social skills for building up the resistance. The
2010 NIDS Report had emphasised in the participation of the family and the community
prevention programs for deterring the adolescent from substance abuse.
Family prevention programs, can be helpful for strengthening the protective factors in the
family, including strengthening of the family bonding and use of positive social norms.
Chakravarthy, Shah & Lotfipour, (2013) have stated that informal social control throughout the
life can be beneficial to control the behaviour problem in the adolescent group. Formal
prevention programs that focus on enhancement of the family bonding, the parenting skills and
the changed behavioural pattern might place the child at risk for later abuse. One of the

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important family prevention program can be a multidimensional family prevention program. It
helps the youth in developing more effective coping skills for better decision making and helping
the family to improve interpersonal functioning as the protective factors. School and community
based programs should be set up informing the students and the families about the ill effects of
alcohol and drug use. Chakravarthy, Shah and Lotfipour, (2013), has compared MDFT with
cognitive behavioural therapy and has found that both the treatments were effective in treating
substance use problem quite efficiently. School based programs for those high school students,
whose grades are low or show signs of behavioural problems. These kinds of programs has been
found to be effective to improve school performance and also helps the adolescents who had
been the victims of alcohols and drugs to the normal pace of life Chakravarthy, Shah and
Lotfipour, (2013).
However, the health care providers like the local nurse and the primary care providers
can perform screening procedures for alcoholism and substance abuse. However, Chakravarthy,
Shah and Lotfipour,. (2013) have stated that barriers like lack of screening tools , lack of
knowledge , skill and confidence , financial disincentives and lack of follow up services and
resource limitations can be the factors. The government funding should be made to improve the
primary care facilities. The taxes in alcohol should be made high and mandatory. Again, some of
the factors that requires community initiatives is that no alcohol outlets should not be in close
proximity to schools, hospitals, universities or playgrounds.

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References
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