Trauma is prevalent among clients with substance abuse issues, yet addictions counselors' training in trauma approaches is limited. The purpose of the current article is to provide pertinent information regarding trauma treatment including the use of assessments, empirically supported clinical approaches, self-help groups and the risk of vicarious…

The urgency of research is caused by the growth of risky behaviours among children and adolescents, which poses a serious danger to their physical, mental and moral health, leads to biological, genetic and social degradation, poses a threat to the health and well-being of society as a whole. In this regard, this article aims to identify…

This article describes the development and psychometrics of the Juvenile Addiction Risk Rating. The Juvenile Addiction Risk Rating is a brief screening of addiction potential based on 10 risk factors predictive of youth alcohol and drug-related problems that assists examiners in more accurate treatment planning when self-report information is…

Objective: This study examined the effectiveness of solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT) intervention on substance abuse and trauma-related problems. Methods: A randomized controlled trial design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of SFBT in primary substance use treatment services for child welfare involved parents in outpatient treatment…

The purpose of this study was to find out the behavior disorders displayed by secondary school students as a result of substance abuse. This would assist to train teachers on specialized intervention methods so that they can have knowledge on how to curb drug menace in learning institutions. The students were interrogated about substance abuse…

Life balance is an important construct within the counseling profession. A validation study utilizing exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression was conducted on the Juhnke-Balkin Life Balance Inventory. Results from the study serve as evidence of validity for an assessment instrument designed to measure life balance.

This study assessed the relative importance of problem gambling, cocaine use and selected psychosocial characteristics in predicting criminal convictions. A self-administered questionnaire was completed by clients when admitted to a treatment program for a primary problem with cocaine (n = 300), gambling (n = 199), or tobacco (n = 249). The…

This study examines compassion fatigue, burnout and compassion satisfaction in two groups of counselors who specialize in substance dependency treatment in order to identify the unique features of substance abuse service delivery that may be related to professional quality of life. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 20 substance abuse…

This preliminary study examined the characteristics and risk factors of problem gambling among Chinese American adolescents. A total of 192 Chinese American students (aged 13-19) from 9th to 12th grades were recruited from three high schools in San Francisco, California. Students were administered the South Oaks Gambling Screen Revised for…

The study set out to examine Quality of Life (QoL), specifically subjective well being in three different addiction populations (260 alcohol-dependent, 282 drug-dependent, and 132 pathological gambling outpatients) at their first visit to treatment, using the Personal Well being Index (PWI). The mean PWI score for all patients was significantly…

Online poker is one of the fastest growing forms of online gambling yet there has been relatively little research to date. This study comprised 422 online poker players (362 males and 60 females) and investigated some of the predicting factors of online poker success and problem gambling using an online questionnaire. Results showed that length of…

Anxiety and mood disorders (AMD) may be more common among adolescents than previously thought, and epidemiological research would benefit from an easily-administered measure of AMD. We assessed the ability of the GHQ12 to estimate the prevalence of AMD in a representative sample of Ontario adolescents. Data were based on self-administered…

Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) are one of the most interesting innovations in the area of online computer gaming. This pilot study set out to examine the psychological and social effects of online gaming using an online questionnaire with particular reference to excessive and "dependent" online gaming. A self-selecting…

There may have been a time when we in Kenya considered the use or abuse of drugs as a problem relating only to Western world. Today it has become an African problem to the extent that a month hardly passes without media reports on large quantities of drugs having been intercepted in a number of African cities and towns. The results of the study…

Twenty-nine young people aged 12-13 years considered to be at a high risk of substance abuse primarily because they no longer attend mainstream school participated in the study by completing a questionnaire designed to obtain information on their drug-using behaviours. The evidence in this paper suggests that many of them are already at a high…