The Role of Social Research in Understanding Teen Drug Use (SOC202A)

This essay explores the critical social issue of teenage drug use through the lens of social research. It begins by defining social research and highlighting its significance, then delves into the specific issue of drug use among adolescents, examining its causes, effects, and the risks associated with it. The paper discusses the contributions of both qualitative and quantitative research methods in understanding the micro and macro dimensions of drug use. It emphasizes the importance of social research in generating new knowledge, influencing policy changes, and improving societal understanding of the problem. The essay provides examples of contemporary research, illustrating how these studies have enhanced our knowledge of teenage drug use and potentially influenced changes in practices. It concludes by summarizing the various aspects related to the social issue and the importance of social research in solving this problem. The essay also references the importance of parents' role in monitoring teenagers and the signs of drug use.

Management 1
Introduction to Social Research
(Use of drugs by a teenager)

Management 2
Introduction
This paper outlines the various aspects related to the social issue by conducting social
research. Social research is conducted by social scientists by using the proper plan. Social
research is based on the particular issue in society and this gives brief information regarding the
specific problem. The social research is of two types that include qualitative and quantitative.
Qualitative provides the understanding of social aspect by the direct observation and quantitative
research gives a brief discussion by the numerical data. The social issue analysed in this paper
relates to the use of drugs among teenagers (Sampasa-Kanvinga and Lewis, 2015).
Nowadays, it has been analysed that several teens started using the drugs and this creates
several harmful risks for the overall society. Teens who use drugs face the risk of addiction when
they become adults. In social research, qualitative research contributes to getting better
information related to the use of drugs among teens. This research helps in the better-
understanding of micro and macro dimensions of drug use.
The social research improves the overall knowledge and increases the overall quality of
the research (Fuhrmann, et al., 2015). The research influences the various changes in the field as
it affects the various policies and practices. The policies get several changes by doing the proper
research. The various theories are used to identify the social issue. The several theories are
adopted to properly analyse the social issues and these theories provide better help in managing
the social issue.

Management 3
Description of social issue
The social issue related to the addiction of drugs among teenagers as the teens are too
much involved in the process of using drugs. Nowadays, many teenagers experimenting with the
drugs and alcohol as it is an important part of growing up and it includes the different type of
risks and several other consequences (Yonker, et al., 2015). This addiction affects the overall
process and creates several cognitive and behavioural effects as the teenager's brain is still in the
process of developing. Experimentation plays an important role in the use of drugs among
teenagers. It is a well-known fact that experimentation is a proper fact of life. It has been
analysed that if the teens tried the drugs so it does not mean that they become addict towards the
use of drugs.
There are several reasons due to the teen's abuse drugs which includes peer pressure,
stress and anxiety (Crone and Dahi, 2012). Several signs show that the teen is using drugs. The
common signs involved in the use of drugs are bloodshot eyes, bad grades, secretive behaviour,
missing curfew, tiredness and many more aspects (Forrester and Harwin, 2011). The
understanding questions help in getting the teens to communicate about the use of drugs. Parents
must take care of the teenagers and analyse the process of them while taking the drugs, But the
parents did not overreact if the teens admit that they are taking drugs. Overreacting gives a bad
impact on the behaviour of teenagers.
Explain the contribution of social research
The contribution of social research performs an essential role in the identification of
social issue as social issue identification is one of the best processes. The proper social research
helps in making laws and maintain relations between social laws and their factors (Morton,
2015). For this purpose, social control is also necessary. The social scientists make proper
research by adopting the systematic plan. This type of research contributes to dealing with the
problem of taking drugs by teenagers as this research gives the various solutions to control this
issue. This issue affects the overall society and makes teenagers addiction towards the taking of
drugs (McFarland and Polyhart, 2015). The social problems can easily analyse by using proper

Management 4
social research. The social research has the great advantage to improve the overall society from
social problems.

Management 5
Examples
The contemporary study is a new concept that used to look at trends which happens in the
contemporary world. Contemporary sociology is comprehensive, comparative, interdisciplinary
and current aspects. The contemporary research helps in undertaking the various process
regarding the analysis of taking drugs among teenagers (Lamprianou, 2013). The several
examples are included in taking of drugs as these examples affect the overall process of social
research. The examples of contemporary research include that it belongs the same period, about
the same age, current trends in the social issue and several aspects related to the process of the
social issue (Power, et al., 2013).

Management 6
Process of identified the research that contributes to the revised knowledge
Different processes contribute to the different aspects of generating new knowledge. The
proper knowledge works to decrease the bad effects occurs in society (Ward, et al., 2012). The
proper social research is contributing to the new and revised knowledge.
The new knowledge generates by academic research and it finds the several effective
ways of managing the different aspects of society. This also helps in managing the main issue
that relates to the intaking of drugs among teenagers. This study helps in identifying the issues
and the solutions to these issues.
The main focus of the applied research is to make the decision-making policy for
managing the social issues identified (Lee, et al., 2012). The main purpose of the knowledge is
related to the problem solving that occurred by the social issue. Knowledge may be discovered
by being aware of a certain idea and it also requires creative thinking. It achieves a certain level
of understanding.

Management 7
Conclusion
From the above information, the several aspects related to the social issue has been
analysed. The social issue relates to the intaking of drugs among teenagers as many teenagers
adopt the habit of taking drugs to reduce their stress and anxiety. Social research is based on the
particular issue in society and this gives brief information regarding the particular issue of
society. Nowadays, it has been analysed that several teens started using the drugs and this creates
several harmful risks for the overall society.
The social issue related to the addiction of drugs among teenagers as the teens are too
much involved in the taking of drugs. This addiction affects the overall process and creates
several cognitive and behavioural effects among teenagers. Several signs show that the teen is
using drugs. The various process of teenagers in solving the issue of taking drugs improved by
analysing social research.

Management 8
References
Crone, E. A., & Dahl, R. E. (2012). Understanding adolescence as a period of social–affective
engagement and goal flexibility. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 13(9), 636-650.
Forrester, D., & Harwin, J. (2011). Parents who misuse drugs and alcohol: Effective
interventions in social work and child protection (Vol. 30). John Wiley & Sons.
Fuhrmann, D., Knoll, L. J., & Blakemore, S. J. (2015). Adolescence is a sensitive period of brain
development. Trends in cognitive sciences, 19(10), 558-566.
Lamprianou, I. (2013). Contemporary political participation research: A critical assessment.
In Democracy in transition (pp. 21-42). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Lee, S., Kim, B. G., & Kim, H. (2012). An integrated view of knowledge management for
performance. Journal of Knowledge management.
McFarland, L. A., & Ployhart, R. E. (2015). Social media: A contextual framework to guide
research and practice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(6), 1653.
Morton, S. (2015). Progressing research impact assessment: A ‘contributions’
approach. Research Evaluation, 24(4), 405-419.
Power, T. G., Sleddens, E. F., Berge, J., Connell, L., Govig, B., Hennessy, E., ... & St. George, S.
M. (2013). Contemporary research on parenting: conceptual, methodological, and
translational issues. Childhood Obesity, 9(s1), S-87.
Sampasa-Kanyinga, H., & Lewis, R. F. (2015). Frequent use of social networking sites is
associated with poor psychological functioning among children and
adolescents. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 18(7), 380-385.
Ward, V., Smith, S., House, A., & Hamer, S. (2012). Exploring knowledge exchange: a useful
framework for practice and policy. Social science & medicine, 74(3), 297-304.
Yonker, L. M., Zan, S., Scirica, C. V., Jethwani, K., & Kinane, T. B. (2015). "Friending" teens: a
systematic review of social media in adolescent and young adult health care. Journal of
medical Internet research, 17(1), e4.