Thomas P. Gullotta – författare

Substance abuse is, and has always been, an indisputable fact of life. People – especially young people – abuse various legal and illegal substances for any number of reasons: to intensify feelings, to achieve deeper consciousness, to escape reality, to self-medicate. And as substance-abusing teenagers mature, they pose particular challenges to the professionals charged with keeping them clean and sober and helping them maintain recovery into adulthood.

Adolescent Substance Abuse: Evidence-Based Approaches to Prevention and Treatment offers clear, interdisciplinary guidance that grounds readers in the many contexts – developmental, genetic, social, and familial among them – crucial to creating effective interventions and prevention methods. Its contributors examine current findings regarding popularly used therapies, including psychopharmacology, residential treatment, school- and community-based programs, group homes, and specific forms of individual, family, and group therapy.

Accessible to a wide professional audience, this volume: (1) Presents evidence-based support for the treatment decision-making process by identifying interventions that work, might work, and don’t work. (2) Identifies individual traits associated with susceptibility to substance abuse and addiction in youth. (3) Provides a biogenetic model of the effects of drugs on the brain (and refines the concept of gateway drugs). (4) Evaluates the effectiveness of prevention programs in school and community settings. (5) Adds historical, spiritual, and legal perspectives on substance use and misuse. (6) Includes the bonus resource, the Community Prevention Handbook on Adolescent Substance Abuse and Treatment.

This volume is an all-in-one reference for counseling professionals and clinicians working with youth and families as well as program developers in state and local agencies and graduate students in counseling and prevention.

As we enter the new millennium, promoting sound mental health and positive behavior of adolescents has undeniably taken on greater significance than ever before. To that end, more and more research is confirming what many have suspected for years: environment and community surroundings have a major affect on an adolescent’s well-being and overall mental health. And because no single causal agent triggers teenage pathology—and no one-size-fits-all treatment is available—the Handbook of Adolescent Behavior Problems offers a comprehensive and integrative biopsychosocial approach to effective practice.

This volume examines not only the psychological and genetic factors underlying dysfunction, it also explores the critical roles that family members, peers, and the larger community play in an adolescent’s life. It offers current interdisciplinary perspectives on adolescent development, both functional and pathological, and provides coverage that is clear, accessible, and practical on such topics as:

Each chapter focuses on a specific behavior or disorder and is formatted to help readers quickly locate needed information.

The Handbook of Adolescent Behavior Problems provides a solid foundation for understanding the adolescent experience and the influence of the family and community as well as much-neededinformation on the development of evidence-based practices. It is designed to be a one-stop reference for anyone working with adolescents—developmental psychologists, clinical and school psychologists, and education specialists as well as for graduate students in these areas.

Depression ranks as a leading mental health problem among Hispanic immigrants and their US-born children. And a wide array of issues - starting with the widespread stereotype of the “illegal immigrant” - makes the Latino experience of this condition differ from that of any other group. Depression in Latinos consolidates the conceptual, diagnostic, and clinical knowledge based on this salient topic, providing coverage from prevalence to prevention, from efficient screening to effective interventions.

In this concise yet comprehensive volume, leading clinicians, researchers, and academics offer extensive research and clinical findings, literature reviews (e.g., an in-depth chapter on the Mexican American Prevalence and Services Survey), and insights gathered from first-hand experience in clinical practice. Perceptive information is offered on the most urgent and complex issues on depression in this diverse and dynamic population, including: (1) The impact language, culture, and societal factors have on depression and its diagnosis. (2) The most relevant assessment instruments. (3) How depression manifests among Latino children, youth, and seniors as well as in Latinas. (4) The relationship between depression and substance abuse. (5) The most effective evidence-based treatment methods. (6) The efficacy of interventions for depression at the community level.

Depression in Latinos is vital reading for clinicians, counseling and school psychologists, psychiatrists, clinical social workers, and public health professionals interested in providing their Hispanic clients with the most effective treatment possible. In addition, its coverage of the broader issues of access to care makes this volume essential reading for mental health administrators, volunteer/outreach agencies, and policymakers.

School activities alone are not always sufficient to ensure children’s academic progress or socio-emotional development and well-being. And the time when many children typically have the least adult supervision – immediately after school – is also the time that they are at the highest risk to act as perpetrators or become victims of antisocial behavior.

Throughout A Blueprint for Promoting Academic and Social Competence in After-School Programs, which focuses on children in grades 1 through 6, noted experts identify the best practices of effective programs and pinpoint methods for enhancing school-based skills and making them portable to home and neighborhood settings. This volume: (1) Analyzes the concepts central to effective after-school programs. (2) Offers developmental, cognitive, and social ecology perspectives on how children learn. (3) Features more than 100 exercises that develop young people’s capabilities for academic, social, moral, and emotional learning – These exercises are ready to use or can be adapted to students’ unique needs. (4) Emphasizes young people’s development as students and as productive members of society during middle to late childhood and early adolescence. (5) Presents explicit theory and evidence that can be used to explain the value of after-school programs for budget proposals.

This important book will find an appreciative, ready audience among the program directors who design after-school curricula, the educators who implement them, the mental health and social work professionals who help staff them, and the current crop of graduate students who will create the next generation of programs.

The contributors probe: the history of abusive behaviour and intoxication; the research literature on drug-exposed children in the welfare system and the interventions that facilitate their optimum development; the legislative and policy contexts in which potential collaborations between the fields of substance abuse and child welfare are being deployed or abandoned; the damaging effects that parental and family substance abuse add to a host of child welfare problems; the need for clinicians to develop a sound therapeutic foundation to enhance their effectiveness with clients; and what can be done within drug-abuse treatment systems to develop services that directly affect the quality of life for children living with a drug-dependent parent.

The contributors probe: the history of abusive behaviour and intoxication; the research literature on drug-exposed children in the welfare system and the interventions that facilitate their optimum development; the legislative and policy contexts in which potential collaborations between the fields of substance abuse and child welfare are being deployed or abandoned; the damaging effects that parental and family substance abuse add to a host of child welfare problems; the need for clinicians to develop a sound therapeutic foundation to enhance their effectiveness with clients; and what can be done within drug-abuse treatment systems to develop services that directly affect the quality of life for children living with a drug-dependent parent.

How do adolescents who hail from non-white, poor, or rural backgrounds reconcile their ethnic or traditional heritage with the largely white, middle-class, urban world of modern America? How does this issue impact their development and behavior? This volume in the Advances in Adolescent Development series addresses these questions by focusing on how demographic diversity (defined by race, ethnicity, community size, region, and wealth) shape adolescent experiences and development. With contributions by recognized experts in their field, the book explores: competence among urban adolescents living in poverty; rural youth and how their experiences differ from other adolescents'; the development of contemporary Appalachian youth; how Native American youth negotiate the challenges of adolescent development; Asian American adolescents from the perspectives of academic achievement, ethnic identity and psychological adjustment; poor versus positive functioning among African American adolescents and the factors that produce these outcomes; and, a phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory as a framework to review research on American adolescent diversity that goes well beyond the traditional focus on minorities.

How do adolescents who hail from non-white, poor, or rural backgrounds reconcile their ethnic or traditional heritage with the largely white, middle-class, urban world of modern America? How does this issue impact their development and behavior? This volume in the Advances in Adolescent Development series addresses these questions by focusing on how demographic diversity (defined by race, ethnicity, community size, region, and wealth) shape adolescent experiences and development. With contributions by recognized experts in their field, the book explores: competence among urban adolescents living in poverty; rural youth and how their experiences differ from other adolescents'; the development of contemporary Appalachian youth; how Native American youth negotiate the challenges of adolescent development; Asian American adolescents from the perspectives of academic achievement, ethnic identity and psychological adjustment; poor versus positive functioning among African American adolescents and the factors that produce these outcomes; and, a phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory as a framework to review research on American adolescent diversity that goes well beyond the traditional focus on minorities.

With contributions from psychologists, sociologists and family care experts, the volume examines such topics as gender, sexual behaviour, adolescent parenting, homosexuality and bisexuality.