substance abuse

Adolescent Substance Use – Supporting documentation
This document will help to guide you through the “Substance Use” PBL activity.

1) In week beginning 5th October, you will be reviewing an article which introduces you to the topic. This article (Stone et al., 2012) covers both risk and protective factors. This should help you to locate other relevant articles in the area; it should also give you a skeleton to help you understand other research you read. It is NOT the only source of information you need to read on this topic. You should also use this session to decide which substance you are planning to focus on and to generate ideas about risk factors.
Assessment – 500 words

Template for 500 word piece; expanded to show how this fits with the first PBL problem.

Title – State your chosen substance and risk/protective factors here
(1) Definition of XX
Provide the following (in this order): a definition of XX; a reference or references to its creators; a brief description of the relevance of XX. Write only in the third person and do not use quotations. You have a strict word limit of no more than 100 words (excluding references). Value: 20 points.
– In this section, I would like you to clarify whether you are focussed on substances in general or a particular substance (and why); explain what your risk factors are or what your protective factors are and why they have been chosen. You need to include references.

(2) References for 2 papers supporting XX
These references MUST be written in APA or Harvard format. Value: 10 points.
– This section needs to include references to two papers which show that your chosen risk factors DO contribute to substance misuse. You JUST include the references – in APA format. No discussion about the references – that is in Section 4!

(3) References for 2 papers critical of XX
These references MUST be written in APA or Harvard format. Value: 10 points.
– This section needs to include references two papers which EITHER show that your risk factor DOES NOT contribute to substance misuse OR which shows that there is a different factor which PROTECTS a young person from substance misuse. Either approach is acceptable. Again just include the references in APA format. No discussion – still in section 4!

(4) Conclusions
What conclusions can be drawn about XX? Critically discuss the subject using the references you have used in answers (2) and (3), plus further reading (include references to these additional readings in APA/Harvard format at the end of your assignment). In the final section/paragraph, state an overall conclusion. Write only in the third person and do not use quotations. You have a strict word limit of no more than 300 words (excluding references). Value: 40 points.
– Here you are discussing the papers listed above but you can include additional sources; and at the end of this I should know how strong a contributor your risk/protective factors are to substance use. And I hope it goes without saying – but these should be papers, not textbooks, newspaper articles or internet sites (if you access a peer reviewed journal article online, this is a journal article so is OK, but a blog or non-peer reviewed internet page is an “internet site”).

(5) Personal reflection
What are the main skills that you have learned or extended during this task? How will you improve further in the next task? You may write in the first person. You have a strict word limit of no more than 50 words. Value: 20 points.