Date of Award

Spring 5-5-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Expressive Therapies

Major

Expressive Therapies

First Advisor

Siyao “Violet” Li

Abstract

This thesis aims to propose an expressive arts therapy prevention intervention for substance use among adolescents in India. Adolescence is a period defined by many physiological and psychological changes and is considered to be a time of high-risk for the initiation of substance use. The prevalence of substance use amongst Indian adolescents is growing every year, with most adolescents engaging in frequent use of alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, and inhalants. This thesis intends to develop and implement an expressive arts therapy prevention intervention for adolescents. The current research was conducted in a private school in Punjab, India with 50 students of class 11 and 12. The prevention intervention focused on addressing students’ perceptions of substance use, imparting psychoeducation, and helping develop coping skills that would act as protective factors for the participants. The prevention intervention was administered in the form of one 90-minute workshop and yielded positive feedback from the students and the school counsellor. The participants engaged in an in-depth discourse about substance use, shared their experiences with family members who use substances, asked about ways they can manage academic stress and familial pressures, and practiced various coping skills when playing the coping skills bingo. The workshop helped students gain clarity on the consequences of long-term substance use and clarified any misconceptions they held about substance use. This prevention intervention has a strong clinical application for children of class 8 and above and can help create awareness, prevention, and protective factors to combat substance use in this population.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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