Towards a Conflict Period Theory of adolescents’ addictive behaviours

ABSTRACT

The Conflict Period Theory (CPT), based on the author’s doctoral fieldwork experiences, intends to analyze addictive behaviors related to alcohol consumption by Indian adolescents. The CPT has four postulates: (i) Positive expectancies influence experimentations with alcohol, (ii) Subjective norms build a defense mechanism against experimentation, (iii) Experimentation with positive expectancies and defense mechanism based on subjective norms produces an inner conflict or dilemma, (iv) This conflict springs with the initiation of alcohol use, fluctuates as the using stages upgrade and stabilizes at a low by reaching the dependency stage. Once the dependency stage is reached, the user finds it challenging to quit the alcohol use, as intrapsychic conflict stops rendering the opportunity for self-regulation of behavior.

KEYWORDS:

• Adolescents
• Alcohol and Tobacco Use
• Subjective Norms
• Conflict Period Theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

The author reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.