Drug Abuse in Children and Thesis

While previous studies have indicated that parental use of prescription drugs facilitates addiction through availability, it would also be valuable to see if parental use of such drugs normalizes seeking pharmaceutical solution to problems on a psychological level. This could be determined through an attitudinal questionnaire following the fill-in-the-blank yes/no demographic questionnaire in the survey. The attitudinal questionnaire can prompt agreement to disagreement with statements on a 1-5 scale such as: "Because they are prescribed by doctors to some people, prescription medications are not as dangerous as illegal drugs." "I feel less guilty about taking prescription drugs, even though they are not prescribed to me, because they are not illegal for everyone." Or "I feel that because my parents take these drugs, they cannot be entirely bad for me."

One interesting issue that is by the fact that girls more than boys abuse all kinds of prescription drugs, both sedatives as well as simulative medications, is the question of the specific reasons prescription medications may be abused (Teens and prescription drugs, 2007, Office of Drug National Drug Control Policy, p.5). Previous research has indicated greater concerns about social compliance in girls regarding behavior, and the use of prescription drugs might be one method of circumventing these taboos. Asking questions such as "did you receive strong anti-drug messages at home/at school" or even questions that relate to compliance regarding non-drug related social taboos (such as "it is important that people think I am a good person) might be interesting to evaluate, amongst girls who did use prescription drugs, to see if they had fallen prey to the 'lesser evil' strategy in terms of drug experimentation.Additionally, including statements specifically designed to examine from the pool of girls might throw into relief the question if, girls may have other concerns such as weight loss that might encourage them to abuse such medications, and on the attitudinal questionnaire, eliciting responses about the importance of body image might shed light on the possible concerns that drive girls to abuse prescription drugs even if they are unwilling to explicitly articulate these reasons.

The research questionnaire should thus comprise both open-ended and close-ended questions. Definite questions on demographics would establish points of cross-comparison between groups, and also determine what, if any, drugs, the subjects used. Open-ended questions would require subjects to volunteer opinions on a variety of subjective statements in a way that was still quantifiable, through the 1-5 rating format. Finally, the broadness of the study is necessary so that students from a variety of drug use and nonuse patterns are elicited, as well as students coming from a variety of home environments with different attitudes towards drugs.

Works Cited

Harmon, Amy. (2005, November 16). Young, assured, and playing pharmacist to friends. The New York Times. Retrieved February 16, 2009 at http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/16/health/16patient.html

Teens and prescription drugs. (2007, February). Office of Drug National Drug Control Policy of the President. Retrieved February 16, 2009 at http://www.theantidrug.com/pdfs/TEENS_AND_PRESCRIPTION_DRUGS.pdf

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