Adjustment, Self-efficacy and Psychosocial Competency of Drug Addicted Adolescents Jeronimo D’ Silva * and Vijayalaxmi A. Aminabhavi ** * St. Xavier’s College, Mapusa, Bardez-Goa, India ** Department of Psychology, Karnatak University, Dharwad, Karnataka, India KEYWORDS Adjustment. Self-Efficacy. Psychosocial Competency ABSTRACT The present study focuses on the impact of addictive behaviour of adolescents on their adjustment, self-efficacy and psychosocial competency. To explore this objective a sample of 40 drug addicted adolescents and 40 adolescents who were not addicted to drugs were selected from Mapusa and surrounding area of Goa state. The subjects were administered the Adjustment Inventory and the Psychosocial Competence Scale. The results revealed that drug addicted adolescents differed significantly from those who were not addicted to drugs in their adjustment, self-efficacy and psychosocial competence. More specifically drug addicted adolescents have shown significantly lower adjustment in terms of home, social, emotional and educational when compared to those adolescents who were not addicted to drugs. Similarly, drug addicted adolescents have shown significantly lower self-efficacy than their counterparts. Finally, drug addicted adolescents are also found to have lower psychosocial competency in terms of problem solving, decision- making, critical thinking, creative thinking , empathy, self- awareness, coping with emotions, coping with stress, interpersonal relationships, effective communication as well as overall compared to those adolescents who are not addicted to drugs. INTRODUCTION Adolescents, being in the transition period, face many difficulties to cope with the new changes in life. A lot of adolescents become easy prey to the various addictions, thereby becom- ing losers in lives to the point of even finishing their precious lives. Due to the involvement in addictions, their whole life is affected. Adoles- cence is often characterized as a time of chal- lenge and turbulence (Roth and Brooks-Gunn 2000). Along with bodily changes that can be quite dramatic, teens are faced with increased independence and growing self-discovery. Scholars of adolescent development refer to these changes as developmental transitions or passages between childhood and adulthood (Arnett 1922a); the sometimes stormy periods are necessary and normal part of growing-up (Gondoll 1999). Adolescents face a lot of psychophysical and social problems and challenges. One of the main challenges is the identity formation. During this stage of the growth, they begin asking questions about who they are and how they differ from their parents (Brown 2000). This emerging sense of the self is fragile and malleable as they ‘try on’ different appearances and behaviours. It is at this time where in the struggle to find an- swers to their questions gains momentum. Another challenge that adolescents face is increased independence. Parents naturally feel less need to supervise their adolescents as com- pared to their children. Some adolescents may take up a job outside their home. In one study, the percentage of waking hours that teens spent with their families fell from 33 percent to 14 percent between the 5 th grade and 12 th grade (Larson et al. 1996). It is during this time when the adolescents spend a lot of time outside their home, fall prey to many social vices such as drug addiction, alcoholism, smoking etc. Some ado- lescents may even take up a job, however, the job instead of becoming a boon may become a bane to the adolescents. Time spent away from their parents can pro- vide the adolescents with opportunities to make independent decisions. It also allows for experi- mentation with a variety of behaviours, some of which are not healthy. A large national study involving adolescents in grades 7 to 12 found strong differences between those adolescents who regularly ate dinner with their parents and those who did not (US Council of Economic Advisors 2000). In particular, adolescents who spent less dinner time with parents showed sig- nificantly higher rates of smoking, drinking, marijuana use, and getting into serious fights. Other studies have also documented the impor- tance of parents’ involvement as a buffer against unhealthy behaviours during the adolescent years (Resnick et al. 1997). Today’s adolescents face tough decisions re- garding a number of dangerous behaviours such © Kamla-Raj 2013 J Psychology, 4(1): 13-18 (2013)