Efficacy of a treatment program based on positive psychology for drug use in juvenile offenders.

Abstract

One of the factors that increase the likelihood of adolescents starting to exhibit and consolidate anti-social behavior is drug use, with a consistent pattern of consumption of different substance found in young offenders (Aebi, Bessler & Steinhausen, 2021). A cognitive-behavioral group treatment program inspired by the positive psychology approach was developed and applied to drug use in minors deprived of liberty (experimental group); the results were compared to those of a group of adolescents with the same type of drug use in the same center (active control group) at two points in time: during and after incarceration. The fall in the rate of problems associated with drug use after incarceration in the experimental group was statistically significant compared to the control group, and the effect size of the experimental condition was large (ῆ2 = 0.55), much higher than the control group (ῆ2 = 0.16). The treatment program has proven to be an effective tool for reducing problems associated with drug use and is especially effective in reducing alcohol and cannabis consumption.