The issue of drug abuse in Malaysia has posed a significant threat to national security. Despite various governmental efforts, it remains a challenge. One of the efforts to reduce this issue is by conducting prevention education programs, especially for high-risk groups. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a drug prevention education program called the RESPEK Program, focusing on resilience and coping strategies among adolescents in at-risk areas. Utilising a one-group pretest-posttest experimental design, the study assessed 200 adolescents from five public schools in Kuala Lumpur. The research sought to examine the effectiveness of the RESPEK program on resilience and coping strategies at the pre and post-intervention stages. The Child and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM) and the Measure of Adolescent Coping Strategies (MACS) were used for data collection. Results indicated significant improvements in resilience and coping strategies post-intervention across all schools. These findings underscore the importance of resilience and adaptive coping strategies in preventing substance use among adolescents. The study concludes that comprehensive prevention strategies, such as the RESPEK program, are vital in addressing the multifaceted risk factors of adolescent drug abuse and highlight the need for continued efforts to build resilience and coping skills among at-risk adolescents.
Aschengrau, A., Winter, M. R., & Shea, M. G. (2023). Association between resilience promotion factors during childhood and risk of drug use disorder during adulthood. Addiction and Substance Abuse, 2(1), 1-10.
Botvin, G. (2000). Preventing drug abuse in schools: social and competence enhancement approaches targeting individual-level etiologic factors.. Addictive behaviors, 25(6), 887-97.
Chua, Y. P. (2020). Mastering Research Statistics. Edisi ke-3. Malaysia. McGraw-Hill
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2018). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. [5th Edition]. SAGE Publications.
El Rawas, R., Amaral, I. M., & Hofer, A. (2020). Social interaction reward: A resilience approach to overcome vulnerability to drugs of abuse. European neuropsychopharmacology : the journal of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 37, 12-28.
Fakaruddin, F., & Nor, A. (2020). Emotion Regulation among Adolescents with Drug Abuse: A Qualitative Study.. Malaysian Online Journal of Educational Sciences, 8(3), 24-34.
Fraenkel, J. R., Wallen, N. E., & Hyun, H. (2012). How To Design and Evaluate Research in Education. [8th edition]. New York: McGraw-Hill Education.
Griffin, K., Scheier, L., Botvin, G., & Diaz, T. (2001). Protective role of personal competence skills in adolescent substance use: psychological well-being as a mediating factor.. Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors, 15(3), 194-203.
Hawkins, J., Jenson, J., Catalano, R., & Wells, E. (1991). Effects of a Skills Training Intervention With Juvenile Delinquents. Research on Social Work Practice, 1(2), 107-121.
Herd, T., & Kim-Spoon, J. (2021). A Systematic Review of Associations Between Adverse Peer Experiences and Emotion Regulation in Adolescence. Clinical child and family psychology review, 24(1), 141-163.
Hodder, R. K., Freund, M., Bowman, J., Wolfenden, L., Gillham, K., Dray, J., & Wiggers, J. (2016). Association between adolescent tobacco, alcohol and illicit drug use and individual and environmental resilience protective factors. BMJ open, 6(11), 1-11.
Ismayilova, L., & Terlikbayeva, A. (2018). Building Competencies to Prevent Youth Substance Use in Kazakhstan: Mixed Methods Findings From a Pilot Family-Focused Multimedia Trial.. The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine, 63(3), 301-312.
Jefferies, P., McGarrigle, L., & Ungar, M. (2019). The CYRM-R: A Rasch-Validated Revision of the Child and Youth Resilience Measure. Journal of evidence-based social work (2019), 16(1), 70-92.
Jurado, M., Pérez-Fuentes, M., Martín, A., Salvador, R., & Linares, J. (2019). Analysis of the Relationship between Emotional Intelligence, Resilience, and Family Functioning in Adolescents’ Sustainable Use of Alcohol and Tobacco. Sustainability, 11(10), 2954.
Kendler, K. S., Ohlsson, H., Clouston, S., Fagan, A. A., Sundquist, J., & Sundquist, K. (2021). The causal effect of resilience on risk for drug abuse: a Swedish national instrumental variable, co-relative and propensity-score analysis. Psychological medicine, 51(5), 846-852.
Kennedy, B., Chen, R., Fang, F., Valdimarsdottir, U., Montgomery, S., Larsson, H., & Fall, K. (2019). Low stress resilience in late adolescence and risk of smoking, high alcohol consumption and drug use later in life. Journal of epidemiology and community health, 73(6), 496-501.
Kunzler, A. M., Helmreich, I., Chmitorz, A., König, J., Binder, H., Wessa, M., & Lieb, K. (2020). Psychological Interventions to Foster Resilience in Healthcare Professionals. The Cochrane Database Of Systematic Reviews, 7(7), 1-79.
Kurniawati, H., Purwoko, B., & Muis, T. (2021). Efektivitas Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) untuk Meningkatkan Kemampuan Coping pada Pelajar Pecandu Napza. Indonesian Journal of Educational Counseling, 5(2), 58-63.
Kurtz, S. P., Pagano, M. E., Buttram, M. E., & Ungar, M. (2019). Brief interventions for young adults who use drugs: The moderating effects of resilience and trauma. Journal of substance abuse treatment, 101, 18-24.
Lee, J. H., Seo, M., Lee, M., Park, S. Y., Lee, J. H., & Lee, S. M. (2017). Profiles of Coping Strategies in Resilient Adolescents. Psychological reports, 120(1), 49-69.
Mathibela, F., & Skhosana, R. (2020). Parent-Adolescent Relationship and the Impact of Substance Dependency within the Trajectory of Adolescent Substance Use Disorder. Parenting - Studies by an Ecocultural and Transactional Perspective. 240.
Moore, G. F., Cox, R., Evans, R. E., Hallingberg, B., Hawkins, J., Littlecott, H. J., Long, S. J., & Murphy, S. (2018). School, Peer and Family Relationships and Adolescent Substance Use, Subjective Wellbeing and Mental Health Symptoms in Wales: a Cross Sectional Study. Child indicators research, 11(6), 1951-1965.
National Anti-Drug Agency. (2022). Drug Information Book 2022. [Report]. National Anti-Drug Agency.
Rodríguez-Ruiz, J., Zych, I., Llorent, V. J., & Marín-López, I. (2021). A longitudinal study of preadolescent and adolescent substance use: Within-individual patterns and protective factors. International journal of clinical and health psychology : IJCHP, 21(3), 100251.
Rose, E. J., Picci, G., & Fishbein, D. H. (2019). Neurocognitive Precursors of Substance Misuse Corresponding to Risk, Resistance, and Resilience Pathways: Implications for Prevention Science. Frontiers in psychiatry, 10, 399.
Rudzinski, K., McDonough, P., Gartner, R., & Strike, C. (2017). Is there room for resilience? A scoping review and critique of substance use literature and its utilization of the concept of resilience. Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy, 12(41), 1-35.
Simpson, T. L., Lehavot, K., & Petrakis, I. L. (2017). No Wrong Doors: Findings from a Critical Review of Behavioral Randomized Clinical Trials for Individuals with Co-Occurring Alcohol/Drug Problems and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research, 41(4), 681-702.
Sumter, S. R., Bokhorst, C. L., Steinberg, L., & Westenberg, P. M. (2009). The developmental pattern of resistance to peer influence in adolescence: will the teenager ever be able to resist?. Journal of adolescence, 32(4), 1009-1021.
Sveinbjornsdottir, S., & Thorsteinsson, E. B. (2014). Psychometric properties of the measure of adolescent coping strategies (MACS). Psychology, 5(2), 142-147.
Wlodarczyk, O., Schwarze, M., Rumpf, H. J., Metzner, F., & Pawils, S. (2017). Protective mental health factors in children of parents with alcohol and drug use disorders: A systematic review. PloS one, 12(6), e0179140.
Wong, C. F., Silva, K., Kecojevic, A., Schrager, S. M., Bloom, J. J., Iverson, E., & Lankenau, S. E. (2013). Coping and emotion regulation profiles as predictors of nonmedical prescription drug and illicit drug use among high-risk young adults. Drug and alcohol dependence, 132(1-2), 165-171.
Yang, C., Zhou, Y., & Xia, M. (2020). How Resilience Promotes Mental Health of Patients With DSM-5 Substance Use Disorder? The Mediation Roles of Positive Affect, Self-Esteem, and Perceived Social Support. Frontiers in psychiatry, 11, 588968.
Zafar, M. (2022). Family Roles in the Risk of Serious Mental Illness among Youth with Substance Misuse: A Systematic Review. Health Scope, 11(4), e129712.
Ghani, M. S. A., Halim, M. A. F. A., Kahar, R., Daud, M. N., Hasbullah, M., Ahmad, S., Abdullah, W. A. W., Ashari, A., & Abdullah, H. S. L. (2024). The Effectiveness of the RESPEK Program on Resilience and Coping Strategies among Adolescents in At-Risk Areas in Kuala Lumpur. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 14(10), 1695–1706.
Copyright: © 2024 The Author(s)
Published by Knowledge Words Publications (www.kwpublications.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
