Assessing How Adolescents Think About the Morality of Substance Use

SUMMARY A phenomenological cognitive model of how adolescents think about the socio-moral aspects of substance use is presented. It is argued that the ways in which adolescents make meaning of substance use has been neglected. A four-construct assessment battery is described, including measures of moral judgment stage, social knowledge domain categorization of substance use behaviors, ethical relativism, and interpersonal problem-solving. The methods employed include oral interviews, card sorts, objective questionnaires, and videotaped family conflict resolutions. A second example of the phenomenological approach presented is the study of adolescent risk-taking, derived from a theoretical model posited by Levitt, Selman and Richmond (1991). It is operationalized, assessed, and measured with objective questionnaires, oral interview questions, and videotaped family interactions. This approach offers new insight into the more traditional means of understanding adolescent substance use and a potential source for designing prevention and intervention programs.