Risk Factors Overview Flashcards
Risk factor.
Anything that increases chances that someone will form an addiction.
Also used to explain why a person increases their current level of use.
Genetic Vulnerability.
People do not inherit an addiction itself, they inherit a predisposition (vulnerability) to dependence.
Genes may determine the activity of neurotransmitter systems in the brain, which will in turn affect behaviours that predispose a person to dependence.
Stress.
People who experience stress may turn to drugs as a form of self-medicarion.
Personality.
Individual personality traits may increase the risk of addiction.
Family influences.
Living in a family which uses addictive substances and/or has positive attitudes about addictions increases a person’s likelihood of becoming addicted.
Peers.
As children get older, peer relationships become the most important risk factor for addiction, outstripping family influences.
Even when an adolescent’s peers have not used drugs themselves, their attitudes towards drugs may still be influential.
Limitation.
P: The positive and negative effect of interactions between the factors are ignored.
E: No risk factor is causal in addiction. Combination of risk matter more than single factors.
E: Linda Mayes and Nancy Suchman (2006) point out that different combinations partly determine the nature and severity of an addiction. Also, the factors we have described as ‘risky’ can be protective - personality traits, genetic characteristics, family and peer influences can reduced the risk of addiction.
L: Therefore a more realistic view of risk is to think in terms of multiple ‘pathways’ to addiction which include different combinations interacting and some having a positive effect.
