Personality traits may help prevent drug addiction in teenagers

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by Change | 26 Aug 2010

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Identifying negative personality traits in teenagers may help to prevent drug addiction further down the line, researchers have discovered.

An effective way of preventing substance abuse among teenagers is to identify potentially troublesome personality traits.

This is according to researchers based at King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry, whose study looked at the responses of 1,000 13-year-old London school pupils, all of whom were quizzed on their personalities, the BBC reports.

By identifying negative traits such as impulsiveness, thinking negatively and anxiety, the researchers hope, it will be easier to prevent an alcohol or drug addiction from taking hold.

Dr Patricia Conrod, a consultant clinical psychologies at the college, said it's important that young people are able to deal with these traits rather than try to change their personalities.

"It's changing how it is they're coping with who they are and perhaps capitalising on some of the more positive sides of the trait and learning to manage some of its more difficult sides," she told the news provider.

According to medic8.com, some of the main reasons that teenagers take drugs are curiosity, the fact that they're seen as a way of standing up to authority and as a means of escapism.

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