Exploring the role of emotional and behavioral problems in a personality-targeted prevention program for substance use in adolescents and young adults with intellectual disability.
Take it Personal! cuts rule-breaking in teens with mild ID even when anxiety and aggression stay unchanged.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers ran the 'Take it Personal!' program with 48 teens and young adults who had mild intellectual disability. The course targets personality traits linked to drug and alcohol use.
Kids met in small groups once a week for eight weeks. Staff taught coping skills, role-played refusal lines, and gave homework.
What they found
Rule-breaking dropped after the course. Parents and teachers both saw fewer lies, thefts, and defiant acts.
Anxiety, withdrawal, and aggression stayed flat. Emotional problems did not change, and they did not predict who cut back on substances.
How this fits with other research
Didden et al. (2009) first mapped the same group: adults with mild-borderline ID who use substances already show worse coping and more mood trouble. Faught et al. (2021) now shows you can still trim rule-breaking even when those emotional problems stay put.
Cox et al. (2022) found behavioral tweaks beat medication tweaks for cutting severe problem behavior in ID teens. The new study adds a ready-made curriculum that any school team can run.
Adams et al. (2021) saw that preschoolers with fewer behavior problems gained more from a movement program. Faught et al. (2021) flips that script: baseline emotional scores did not shape outcomes here. The difference is age, task, and dose—eight short talk sessions versus twelve weeks of motor drills.
Why it matters
You now have an eight-week manual that lowers rule-breaking in youth with mild ID even if anxiety or aggression stays high. Pair it with behavioral skills training or use it as a stand-alone tier-two group. Start by screening for mild ID and mild-to-moderate substance risk—no need to wait until emotional problems are fixed.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Adolescents and young adults with a mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning (MID-BIF) are at risk for problematic substance use and are more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems than peers without MID-BIF. A personality-targeted prevention program called Take it Personal! effectively reduces substance use in adolescents and young adults with MID-BIF. AIMS: The program's effectiveness was examined on its secondary goal: reducing emotional and behavioral problems. The potentially moderating role of these problems on the program's effectiveness with substance use was also explored. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Substance use and emotional and behavioral problems were compared between participants in Take it Personal! (n = 34) and those in the control condition (n = 32) in a quasi-experimental pre-posttest study with a three-month follow-up. Effectiveness and moderation were assessed with multilevel models. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Take it Personal! seems to reduce rule breaking. There were no significant effects on anxiety, withdrawal, and aggression. None of the problem domains moderated the program's effectiveness on substance use frequency. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Take it Personal! may effectively reduce rule breaking. Moreover, adolescent and young adults with different levels of emotional and behavioral problems benefit equally in terms of reduced substance use.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2021 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2020.103832