Transforming perceptions of drug consumption among youth through a Cognitive-Social-Medico-Legal Educational Approach

Abstract

This research paper aims to address the pressing concern of drug consumption among youth by utilizing a comprehensive statistical analysis of an intervention program. The study employs the "Intention to Change Behavior Toward Drug Consumption" scale, which is rooted in the Theory of Planned Behavior, to assess participants' intention to alter their drug consumption behavior. The scale encompasses five subscales—attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, perceptions of risks, and knowledge of consequences—each probing different components of the theory. The intervention program, named the "Cognitive-Social-Medico-Legal Educational Approach," draws from Albert Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory to affect the behavior and attitude change in youth regarding drug consumption. Grounded in cognitive, behavioral, and environmental factors, the program encompasses observation and modeling, enhancing self-efficacy, employing rewards and punishments, developing self-regulation skills, improving the social environment, and fostering awareness of medico-legal implications. Through a thorough selection methodology, 40 youth actively engaged in drug use and seeking psychotherapy services were chosen for participation—20 in the experimental group and 20 in the control group. After a three-month intervention, statistical analysis revealed significant shifts in attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and knowledge of consequences in the experimental group. Conversely, the control group exhibited limited changes, except for marginal shifts in perceptions of risks. These findings offer critical insights for addressing youth drug consumption through evidence-based interventions, thereby contributing to the larger discourse on substance abuse prevention and empowerment among the youth demographic. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.