Abstract
Third and fourth grade students () completed measures of psychosocial development, substance use, and intentions to use in January, and again in May, 1998. A revised Erikson Psychosocial Inventory Scale (EPSI) was employed to assess psychosocial development while estimates of substance use and intentions were obtained from anonymous self-reports. The sample was split on the basis of change in substance use and intentions from January to May. Using this grouping scheme as an independent variable, scores on the EPSI subscales (trust, autonomy, initiative, industry, and identity) were compared over time. Interestingly, no differences in psychosocial development were evident for the initial substance use comparisons, but differences were evident five months later. Respondents who initiated substance use and/or increased intentions during the five-month interval exhibited small gains (averaging less than 2.0%) on measures of trust, autonomy, and initiative and modest declines in industry and identity (−1.2%). Respondents who neither initiated substance use nor increased intentions during the five-month interval experienced significant gains (averaging 6.0%) on all five of the EPSI subscales. These findings suggest that early substance use may impede psychosocial development, thus justifying prevention efforts in the earlier grades as well as efforts to delay onset.
Highlights
Risk and resiliency has spawned much research over the past four decades
Much of this work has focused upon identifying characteristics that contribute to “risk” such as low socioeconomic status, alcoholic and/or psychotic parents, maternal employment, and troubled family relationships, marked by separation and/or divorce, which are shared among adolescents who exhibit problem behaviors including school drop-out, substance use and abuse [1, 2], precocious and risky sexual behaviors, and delinquency
Reliability estimates and interscale correlations were generated to ensure that the revised Erikson Psychosocial Inventory Scale (EPSI) subscales yielded psychometric properties comparable to those of the original scales
Summary
Risk and resiliency has spawned much research over the past four decades. Much of this work has focused upon identifying characteristics that contribute to “risk” such as low socioeconomic status, alcoholic and/or psychotic parents, maternal employment, and troubled family relationships, marked by separation and/or divorce, which are shared among adolescents who exhibit problem behaviors including school drop-out, substance use and abuse [1, 2], precocious and risky sexual behaviors, and delinquency. Erikson [4,5,6] contends that a central psychosocial task during the early years, that is, the first task in personality development, involves balancing trust and mistrust. Erikson believes that resolution of this stage is influenced by the relationship between a primary caregiver and her child, and, mothers create a sense of trust in their children [6, page 63]. Werner [7] provides empirical support for Erikson’s contention by observing that the resilient children in her study had received a great deal of attention from their primary caretakers during the first year of life, especially when compared to children who later developed serious coping problems. Werner’s resilient children had “at least one caregiver from whom they received lots of attention during the first year of life” [3, page 69]. Resilient children were in situations that, according to Erikson, should promote a healthy balance of trust over mistrust
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