Abnormal Psychology

“Coping can be defined as the cognitive and behavioral activities used to manage stressful events and the emotions generated by them,”(Ammerman, Lynch, Donovan, Martin, & Maisto, 2001). It is possible that substance abuse, drugs and alcohol, could be caused by the user’s inability to cope with the world around them and the problems within it. This first article discusses adolescents with substance abuse problems and whether or not their lack of coping skills is the cause of the problem. The second article focuses specifically on cocaine abusers and if developing their coping skills prevents them from a relapse. These articles will try to determine how coping is involved in substance abuse.

According to the article, Constructive Thinking in Adolescents With Substance Use Disorders, substance use in adolescents has been strongly linked to an inability to manage the stress in their lives and the negative thinking that can go along with that. Substance abuse can be a maladaptive coping strategy. This is when the users feel as though there is no other way to deal with the stress, anxiety, and a sense of hopelessness. The researchers used the Constructive Thinking Inventory (CTI), which measures the processes that go along with the experimental system, to examine whether or not the current validity of the CTI for adolescents would go along with their findings. They hypothesized that a deficiency is constructive thinking more likely in those tested that were substance abusers.

The subjects in the study were 551 adolescents. They were between the ages of 14 and 18 years old. These adolescents were split up into groups: lifelong addicts and non-users. 91 percent of the members of the abusers group were clinically diagnosed and 17 percent were diagnosed within the next three years following the study. The abusers were brought in from juvenile justice facilities and substance abuse programs. The group of adolescents that were