IndexElements of social cognitive theoryThe nature and causes of alcohol abuseReview of the literature on interventions guided by social cognitive theoryConclusionSocial cognitive theory or SCT is an interpersonal theory developed by Albert Bandura. The theory explains that there is a dynamic interaction between individuals' personal factors, their behaviors and the environment. This interaction is called mutual determinism. Personal factors, behavior and environment continuously interact, influencing and influencing each other. For example, you can change what is happening in your personal life by changing your attitude towards the situation or by removing yourself from that environment. The theory takes into account an individual's past experiences, which determine whether behavioral changes will occur. The past experiences one has encountered will influence their expectations, reinforcements, and self-efficacy, which determine whether a person will engage in health behavior change and the reasons why they do so or not. The theoretical constructs that make up social cognitive theory are observational learning, reinforcement, and self-efficacy. Social cognitive theory is presented in this essay to explain the process of alcohol abuse among adolescents. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayElements of Social Cognitive TheoryObservational learning or modeling is defined as "learning by watching others and copying their behaviors." Observational learning can explain individual behavior and why they do what they do. As children we watch our parents and imitate what they do because we want to be just like them. Observational learning is most effective if an individual connects with the person modeling the behavior. There are four stages in the observational learning method which include: attention, retention, reproduction and motivation. First, you need to pay attention to the new behavior that is being modeled. After the first step, you must be able to remember how to perform the new behavior, called retention. Next, you have to be able to perform the behavior and engage in that behavior and that's called reproduction. And finally, an individual must be motivated to continue this new behavior. According to Jhangiani, how motivated the individual was to perform the new behavior depended on what happened to the individual who modeled the behavior for him. If the individual were rewarded, you would be more motivated to engage in the behavior. This is called vicarious reinforcement. But if the individual modeling the new behavior is punished, you would be less likely to engage in the new behavior, which is known as indirect punishment. Reinforcement is a reward system according to Sharma. There are rewards for positive reinforcement and punishment for negative reinforcement in response to new behavior. Positive reinforcement might be buying new clothes because you've lost a lot of weight and want something to show off your new body, but not all positive reinforcement is good. A “bad” positive reinforcement is bullying. According to Sharma, children bully because their expectations are to be praised by their parents or to gain a higher social status among children their age. Negative reinforcement is a case where the goal is to stop a bad behavior, rather than encourage it to continue. An example Sharma uses is when a child refuses to eat vegetables, he or she is denied dessert. Negative reinforcement, or punishment, is that the child now has towatching everyone else enjoy dessert. According to Piquero, when a behavior has positive reinforcement and is often rewarded, the greater the value of the behavior to an individual. Therefore, positively reinforced behaviors will most likely be a behavior that the individual will continue to choose to perform frequently. Self-efficacy is characterized as “confidence or belief in one's ability to perform a particular behavior. Self-efficacy is task-specific, meaning that self-efficacy can increase or decrease based on the specific task at hand, even in related areas.” Simply put, an individual will only do what they think they can do and will avoid doing what they believe is not within their ability to do. When an intervention is organized with the application of social cognitive theory, the goal is to build an individual's self-confidence through observational learning, verbal persuasion and mastery experiences. The nature and causes of alcohol abuse Three out of five female peers drank for the first time in high-level conditions. school. We've all been there; you are sixteen years old and you are at your first party. Everyone seems to be having a lot of fun. The music is loud, your best friends are dancing, and that boy you like just bought you a beer. Take a sip, "repulsive", "How do you drink this stuff?" you think about yourself. However, you knock him down, so he thinks you're cool. When asked, “What made you want to try alcohol?” 80% of their peers agree that they have tried alcohol simply because their friends drank too. Even though only forty percent of their peers say they feel forced to drink. Before you know it, you're on your third cup, you have no idea where your friends have disappeared to, and now you're stumbling down the hallway of a house you've never entered before this party. Is this how you imagined your evening would go? What some might see as a harmless night of innocent fun, others see as alcohol abuse. When looking for the definition of alcohol abuse it states that alcoholism is the habitual abuse of alcohol. However, how can you “abuse” alcohol? Everyone drinks and we all drink to have fun, right? So, what is the exact way we should use alcohol correctly? Some may say that by drinking underage you are drinking irresponsibly; therefore, you are abusing alcohol. Others think that as long as you're in a safe place and with adults there's nothing wrong with a beer or two. After asking, none of the peers ever felt like they had abused alcohol as a teenager. “Have you ever had a friend or sibling who you heard was abusing alcohol at a young age?” Three of the five peers felt as if they had shared an experience with someone who abused alcohol. Alcohol abuse has become a growing problem around the world, but it is a growing problem among adolescent girls. Teens turn to alcohol for many reasons, including an uncertain future, the stress of daily life, and serious mental disorders such as depression and obsessive compulsive disorder. All these personal situations that teenage girls go through feel they have reason to want to escape from reality and abuse alcohol every day. Alcohol consumption alters the mind of those young adolescents who abuse the substance and can cause mental risks such as depression, eating disorders and poor decision-making ability. Alcohol causes teenage girls to think and act irrationally, leading them to commit more crimes than those who don't. consume the substance. Crimes associated with alcohol use are burglary, trespassing, rape, assault, sale/distribution of drugs,blackmail and murder. Students who abuse drugs are also more likely to break laws such as drunk driving, public drunkenness and public nuisance. Alcohol use typically begins in adolescents, around the same time that mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety begin to occur naturally among adolescents. the teenager. Adolescents are defined as the ages between 13 and 19 and are the time when children become adults. This is the time when peer pressure is most likely to occur in an individual's life, and according to a recent study, nearly 24 million teenagers in the United States abuse alcohol. Adolescent girls who abuse alcohol drinks daily are at "high risk of poor academic performance, delinquency, teen pregnancy, and depression." Alcohol abuse, at any age, but especially among young adolescent girls, can even end in death because impairment is associated with numerous intentional and accidental deaths. between 15 and 24 years old. Death from alcohol abuse could lead to drug overdose, drunk driving and accident, homicide and suicide. Alcohol abuse can cause slurred speech, impaired vision, and continued memory loss from dehydration or alcohol poisoning that can lead to blackouts. When asked if anyone had ever experienced a blackout or loss of control due to alcohol consumption, none of the peers had ever experienced either. You start drinking for fun now that you're young, but then it becomes a daily occurrence. As if it were a drug, something you need every day. Which causes your body to slowly deteriorate. Your liver, pancreas and heart are all affected by your decision to drink. If only you had gotten help sooner, what you thought wasn't a problem, actually is. In one article, "Attention All Girls," alcohol abuse leads to out-of-control behavior, including teenage girls fighting with family members, friends, and girls at school. The article goes on to say that alcohol hits teenage girls twice as hard as boys of the same age. “For kids, one drink has the same effect as two drinks.” Women are more likely to be addicted and hospitalized for addiction. We read about a girl named Rebecca who started at age 10. When she started drinking it was one drink a week and by the time she was a sophomore in high school, Rebecca was drinking alcoholic beverages every day. Rebecca developed stomach problems that led to her hospitalization, and her social life and schoolwork suffered due to her lack of care. “Have you ever been caught? Maybe from your parents, an older sibling or the police?" Surprisingly, only one of the five peers had been caught drinking while underage. Suddenly you hear sirens coming from down the street. Everyone starts squirming for fear of being discovered with the chaos surrounding you, you finally start to sober up, but now you have a flashlight shone in your face by one of the local police officers what you saw as an evening of fun the police see as alcohol abuse because you are underage .Now you're sitting in the back of a police car waiting to be taken home. What will your parents think? So the party has crashed and now you're going home at home, as you walk in your parents are sitting at the dining room table waiting for you. Your father's face is lava red, while your mother sits with a smirk. You just know that your father is about to give you "the lesson." . Here it is, the moment of truth. Alcohol abuse can causeslurred speech, impaired vision and continued memory loss from dehydration or alcohol poisoning which can lead to blackouts. When asked if anyone had ever experienced a blackout or loss of control due to alcohol consumption, none of the peers had ever experienced either. You start drinking for fun now that you're young, but then it becomes a daily occurrence. As if it were a drug, something you need every day. Which causes your body to slowly deteriorate. Your liver, pancreas and heart are all affected by your decision to drink. If only you had gotten help sooner, what you thought wasn't a problem, actually is. So now your parents no longer let you stay out late, or hang out with your friends for fear that you'll drink again. Your parents invite you to attend the local peer counseling program in the hopes that you will never take a sip again. None of the peers had ever participated in a peer counseling program. Despite the sources provided, there are still some teenage girls who abuse alcohol at a young age. We've all heard of Dr. Phil, a talk show host who helps individuals and families across the nation with problems they may be facing. Maybe you've watched a show or two and seen a family struggling with their teenage daughter's behavior. Between attitudes, partying, missing school and drug use, parents label their children as "uncontrollable." In some cases, having someone outside the family step in with advice has actually worked. While others may have requested a different alternative. But what about the teenage girls who manage to escape? Despite all the help their parents tried to provide them, they still drank when they were underage. Fifteen years later and they are now identified as alcoholics. Could something be done? Three of the five peers agreed that, despite the odds, you can't fight fate; while the other two felt like something could be done regardless. “Do you still drink now, if/since you are legal?” All the peers answered yes. “Do you feel like you are abusing alcohol if/because you are legal?” Two of the five peers openly stated that they sometimes “cut loose” or, in other words, drink unmanageably. However, only if they are occupied by friends. The other three peers said they would much prefer to manage the amount of alcohol they consume. Literature Review of Interventions Guided by Social Cognitive Theory CASASTART, which stands for Striving Together to Achieve Rewarding Tomorrows, is a program developed by CASA to prevent adolescent substance abuse, delinquency, and reduce crime in neighborhoods. CASTART is a neighborhood-based, school-focused intervention that aims to provide collaboration with police officers, school administration, and community organizations to achieve two goals: 1) redirect the minds of young adolescents in hopes that they will not become delinquents or drop out of school; 2) reduce and control substance abuse and related crimes in the hope that young people can grow up in a safer environment. Reciprocal determinism would agree that if a teenager changed their drinking behavior, it could change what the environment they lived in was like. Social cognitive theory also explains that environmental changes might make a new behavior easier to perform. Behavioral capacity states that before an individual can perform a certain behavior, he or she must have some sort of knowledge about the behavior and the skills to perform it. LifeSkills is a CBI (health-based intervention.