The Psychological Problems of Teenagers With Addictive Behaviour: The Role of Life Meaning Strategies

Abstract

There are various forms of addictions that teenagers indulge in. Soviet and international research show that teenagers’ addictions cause problems in interpersonal relationships, increase risk behaviour and is one of the reasons for suicides. Studies have also found that drug abuse problems that started in the teenage years lead to serious abuse problems in early adulthood, although abuse tends to decrease in the late 20s. One of the protective factors from addictive behaviour for teenagers is the ‘meaning of life’ and spiritual values, which play a major role in impulse control. This study investigated two groups of teenagers; the experimental group using participants with drug addiction and the control group using participants with no addiction. This study examined how teenagers’ values predicted adult social roles, civic behaviors, and drug use. Results suggest that attention should be paid to how teenagers think about their future due to the associated links with long- term social and health behaviours. This findings of the study reveals that there are considerable differences both in terms of individual indicators, and on the relationships between the meaning-life orientations and value orientations in the structure of personal life plans of teenagers who exhibit and those who do not exhibit addictive behaviour. The research has shown that psycho-corrective work should take into account the formation of personal life plans of teenagers. Identified characteristics of personal life plans for teenagers who are prone to addictive behaviour can be used for psychodiagnostic purposes when carrying out complex judicial psycho-psychiatric examination or forensic psychiatric examination.