Answer

Statement of Research Problem

The age between 12 and 17 years is critical to the development of adolescents. This is the transitional period where teenage children enter into their youthful years. Skewes and Blume (2019) note that during this stage, it is expected that children will practice making choices. However, most of the choices regarding physical, cognitive, psychological, and social growth is influenced by peers. For this reason, adolescents are likely to make decisions based on peer pressure or herd psychology rather than independent and critical reasoning. The underdevelopment in thinking and critical decision making, high tendency to take risks, coupled with environmental factors such as accessibility to drugs often coincide to enable access to drugs.

Unfortunately, the process which starts with experimentation could quickly develop into an addiction and dependency. Misuse use of drugs among underage children could also cause drug related illnesses, injuries, risky behavior, and interpersonal violence. Elflein (2020) seconds these sentiments noting that drug use among underage has significantly contributed towards criminal behavior. This statement is justified by statistics showing a strong correlation between neighborhoods, where residences with high number of underage drug users are more insecure and prone to crime compared to localities with low underage drug use (Maggs et al. 2019). Guided by this backdrop, this research proposal acknowledges the vulnerability of underage children to risk factors such as peer pressure, thus necessitating a research to identify reasons why underage youths take part in drug use as well as a course of action to prevent drug use in the future. The findings will be useful in guiding law enforcement and policy reforms therefore producing responsible adolescents and creating safer communities.

Research Questions and Choice of Sites

The primary research question is to critically analyze drug use in underage children across North America. The secondary research questions include identifying reasons why underage children indulge in drug use. Besides, the research proposes courses of action to address the challenge of drug use in the future.

The research topic is underage drug use. The research is limited to North America. According to De Looze et al. (2019) North America is a vast region composed of 23 countries namely Canada, the Caribbean countries, and Belize among others. The reason for selecting this region is justified by statistical evidence by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) which associated North America with a high prevalence of drug use (UNODC, 2018). Apart from consuming drugs, the report shows that many underage children are involved in the supply chain of drugs. This trend is attributed to the lack of opportunities for economic and social advancement in addition to poverty. The most affected underage groups being those from poor neighborhoods mostly composed of immigrants (UNODC, 2018). These groups are easily lured or coerced into working for organized crime groups. The gangs prefer underage children because of their obedience and their daring nature.

This research focuses on the age groups 12 – 17 years. The research is longitudinal as it spans many years from early 2000’s to 2020. This expansive period will enable comparison of variables to highlight trends in drug use among underage children in the identified region. The trend will be important in understanding the years in which drug use either decreased or increased and the possible reasons why. The trend will further be compared to the level of criminal activities reported among underage children. The statistics will be important in explaining the reasons for drug use among underage children and also, hinting at the strategies to prevent and reduce prevalence of drug use in the target population.

Research Design

The actual research process will be guided by the Saunders research onion model. The six elements of this model strategically highlights how a researcher can identify the research philosophy, approach, strategies, choices, sampling methods, and time horizon for the research (Sahay, 2016). The strategic selection of these research processes is quintessential in enhancing the validity and objectiveness of the research data derived from the research process. The interpretivist philosophy will be used for this research. It will be complemented by the inductive research approach. The collection of data and information will be governed by desk research, where matching secondary sources of data will be identified using online databases and libraries. They include Ebscohost and Google scholar, as well as search engines to enable access to material with data on drug use among underage children in North America. It is expected that the information collected from desk research will be reliable, however, its potential short comings could be possibility of propagating the bias from previous researchers (Sahay, 2016). To prevent this shortcoming, only credible databases, and online libraries will be used to retrieve peer reviewed articles.

The research will collect and present qualitative data. This research design collects non-numerical data which is then analyzed and explained logically. On the contrary, quantitative research design collects empirical and numerical data which is then analyzed using statistical tools such as SPSS and STATA (Schulenberg, 2016). Regarding sampling, the research will sample secondary data using convenience sampling approach. This form of sampling involves using readily available sources of data and information. For instance, it uses the first sets of data identified by the researcher. To prevent this shortcoming, the researcher will critically analyze the findings made after inserting the search terms into the search engine. The abstracts will guide the identification of secondary sources with the most useful and meaningful information for this research (Sahay, 2016). As previously noted, the time horizon for the research is longitudinal as opposed to cross-sectional. The former entails conducting research over extended period while the latter collects data over a short time.

Some of the research limitations and delimitations anticipated when conducting this research is selective deposit. The problem of selective deposit occurs when a researcher uses biased sources of data and information. The information could be subjectively presented by the primary researcher, or interpreted wrongly by the researcher (Sahay, 2016). The end result could be prejudiced findings that fail to meet the goal of this research. Such information will fail to fill in the research gap as intended. This shortcoming will be addressed by comparing various credible and peer reviewed sources of information on drug use among underage children across North America.

Literature Review

A research study conducted by the UNODC (2018) notes that drug use among underage children is a matter concern across most countries. The problem is becoming widespread. For example, by 2011, 22% of the high school students involved in a survey reported to be involved in binge drinking on a regular basis while 39% confided to having had a drink in the past 30 days (Elflein, 2020). 30% of the respondents used marijuana regularly while 40% had used over the past 30 days. 7% of the children used cocaine, while another 4% reported to using methamphetamines at least once. 11% of the respondents used inhalants once in their life. An additional 8% had used ecstasy drugs while 9% used hallucinogens. Another report by UNODC (2018) expressed fears that cigarette smoking was increasing steadily among underage children. Particular statistics showed that 1% of children aged 12 -13 yeas, 7% of 14-15 years, and 17% of 16 – 17 year olds smoked cigarettes globally. Another set of statistics by Elflein (2020) showed that drug use was a significant problem in the USA and North America. The use of drugs among adolescents is damaging since it deters their mental and physical development thus impacting their ability to live meaningful lives. A longitudinal analysis of empirical data showed that in 1991, 30.4% of underage children had used illicit drugs in their lifetime. By 1997, the number had increased to 43.3%. However, it had shown a significant drop in 2019 to 35%. Regardless, Marijuana was still the most abused drug among underage children with 78% of children in 12^th grade reporting using it once in their lifetime (Bulut & Usman, 2020). 27% of the respondents had used cocaine in 2019.

The report by De Looze et al. (2019) further showed that more white children smoked cigarettes compared to other ethnic groups. The Hispanics/ Latinos reported the highest rate of alcohol consumption. Marijuana use featured prominently across all ethnic groups. Cocaine was mostly abused by Hispanic males. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism attribute drinking among underage children on number of factors. First, underage children are prone to risk taking. Scientific evidence justifies that teenagers have a high propensity to indulge in dangerous situations. These thrill seeking tendencies might motivate them to experiment with drugs especially marijuana and alcohol. Their underdeveloped psychological capabilities further explain why underage children are easily lured into drug abuse. Secondly, ease of availability of drugs. Elflein (2020) reports that drugs that were easily available and cheap were the most abused by underage children. This includes Marijuana which is easily accessible to the teenagers. Third, hereditary factors. Children with alcoholic parents tended to have a high risk of becoming alcoholics. The same trend is observed among parents who abuse other drugs. Scientists have therefore associated this trend with genetic factors where some genes predispose children to early drug use. Fourth, environmental factors. Maggs et al. (2019) explain that there is a strong correlation between drug use, genes, and environmental factors. Environmental factors such as early exposure to drugs could motivate children to drink. Similarly, advertising drugs could lure children to try them out. Skewes and Blume (2019) add that children raised in environments with racial trauma especially American Indians were most likely to abuse drugs. The link between environment and drug use among underage children is a key determinant in selecting North America where most families dependent on tourism for a living. The interaction with tourists increase their exposure to leisure which is synonymous with drug abuse and criminal activities.

Given that underage children are underdeveloped, exposure to drugs could have multiple effects ranging from irresponsible or antisocial behavior, poor health such as lung cancer and liver cirrhosis. It is therefore prudent that the problem of drug use among children is addressed. Bulut and Usman (2020) propose a number of measures. This includes adopting environmental measures that deter access to and subsequent use of drugs. The first measure is increasing sin tax to raise the price of legal drugs such as alcohol and cigarettes. Secondly, the government could ban advertisement of alcohol and other legal drugs. Third, the government should enact and enforce laws on zero-tolerance for underage access to and use of drugs. The lax implementation of laws is a contributing factor to the user of drugs among children. This will require improvement in law enforcement on drug use among children. Fourth, use of school-based and family-based intervention programs (Moore et al. 2018). Whereas school based programs are applied in schools through setting of norms and teaching children to abstain from drug use, family based programs focus on collective policing of drug use among children and reporting to law enforcement agencies.

Research Ethics

The first type of harm that could be caused by this research is its use and dependence on secondary sources of data. This approach to research poses ethical concerns since using someone else’s work could create intellectual property risks (Schulenberg, 2016). It is necessary that the researcher asks for authoritative permission from the owner of the content before using it. The researcher is further obligated to give credit by referencing the journal article. For this research, the researcher will ensure to introduce in-text citations and provide a reference list acknowledging all the sources of secondary data used.

The second type of harm could result from lack of honest and objectivity in reporting of the findings. It is important that a researcher conducts honest work. This means that he or she is obligated to avoid forgery of figures and data to justify a point (Israel & Gelsthorpe, 2016). In addition, the researcher is required to address each challenge encountered by being honest to the respondents and authorities. This attribute enables the researcher to avoid falsifying, fabricating, and misrepresenting data. Similarly, objectivity is an important element essential in avoiding harm. It is possible for the researcher to project personal feelings and attitude when collecting and presenting data and information (Israel & Gelsthorpe, 2016). Such practices harm the credibility of a research. Instead, it is necessary for the researcher to be professional and use peer reviewed sources.