DAWN is a comprehensive indicator that measures the prevalence of drug use in the nation among America's population age 12 and older. The 1995 Household Survey indicated that there has been a large increase in illicit drug use among the critical 12-17 age group. Their attention span shortens and the youth sees the world through a haze. Under these circumstances, little learning or social skill development can occur and the adolescent moves tediously, if it all, through developmental stages. Let's examine Jean Piaget's stage of concrete operations, ages 7 through 11, when children's thought is relational.
Children begin to master notions of classes, relations, and quantities.
Conservation and seriation are possible, enabling children to formulate hypotheses and explanations about concrete events. Children formulate a hypothesis originating from the concrete data, rather than from internal resources. And, once the hypothesis is formulated, children in concrete operations are reluctant to change the hypothesis, tending instead to alter the data. Adolescents develop the ability to think about mental constructs as objects that can be manipulated, and they can master concepts such as probability and belief. Cognitive growth appears to stop once substance abuse becomes habitual.