One of the Healthy People 2020 goals is to enhance healthy development, safety, and overall well-being of adolescents and young people.
One of the Healthy People 2020 goals is to enhance healthy development, safety, and overall well-being of adolescents and young people. Latest statistics indicate that an upwards of 23 million young people aged 12 and above are addicted to drugs and alcohol. This figure is astonishing especially when you consider how many other people are affected by this problem. Consumption of alcohol before the brain is fully developed heightens the risk of addiction such that teenagers who take alcohol and drugs before 15 years are at a higher risk as they are five times more likely to become dependent (NCADD, 2018). As per social cognitive theory, people learn attitudes towards certain behaviors by observing others firsthand and then succumbing to peer pressure.
Seeing how dire the situation is, efforts are afoot to mitigate alcohol and drug risk factors as used by teens and young adults. This entails a different approach to education on drugs that includes examining the entire person and not just their addiction. See them in the breadth of their humanity sans judgment and asking the right questions like how is their home life? What is making them turn to the bottle or the syringe? We need a more nuanced approach and open-minded thinking while being aware of broader social realities like racial profiling skews perceptions that only minorities are addicts whereas whites do it too (Rashid, 2016).
References
NCADD (2018). Alcohol, Drugs, and Youth. NCADD. Retrieved from
https://www.ncadd.org/about-
NIH (2003). What are the highest risk periods for drug abuse among youth? National Institute on
Drug Abuse. Retrieved from https://www.drugabuse.
Rashid, Y. (2016). The Drug Education Teens Really Need. Oath Inc. Retrieved from
https://www.huffingtonpost.
health_psychology_research_paper_spring_2016 ptcl_and_nktcl_study
Answer preview One of the Healthy People 2020 goals is to enhance healthy development, safety, and overall well-being of adolescents and young people.
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