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EFFICACY OF TREATMENT METHODS
Efficacy of Treatment Methods on Smoking Cessation in Teens
Sayla Scott
School of Behavioral Sciences, Liberty University
Author Note
Sayla Scott
I have no known conflict of interest to disclose.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Sayla Scott.
Email: sscott245@liberty.edu.
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EFFICACY OF TREATMENT METHODS
Efficacy of Treatment Methods on Smoking Cessation in Teens
Science is the Latin word for knowledge, and in the pursuit of knowledge, it is imperative
to delineate foundational proposals for research topics (Heppner et al., 2016). It is that
knowledge that has highlighted the importance of successfully decreasing dependence on
nicotine among the adolescent population. This study executed a between-groups study with 40
adolescent participants; the participants were randomized and organized into two separate
treatment groups with different conditions – one using the standard treatment for smoking
cessation, and the other group using the standard treatment in conjunction with the Mindfulness
Therapy approach.
Experimental Design and Results
The research question is whether or not Mindfulness Therapy is more effective in
decreasing nicotine dependence long-term when used with the standard treatment rather than
using the standard treatment alone. Due to the nature of the study and the different treatment
groups, the researchers decided to proceed with an independent samples t-test, which is designed
to determine differences between said differing treatment groups. In their testing, the results
came out to be t(38)=4.9607 with a p-value of .000. In order to be considered statistically
significant, a p-value must be less than or equal to .05. With a p-value of .000, this t-test
indicates that there is a strong statistical significance of rejecting the null hypothesis. The null
hypothesis for this study was that there would be no difference in results with the addition of
Mindfulness Therapy. In other words, Mindfulness Therapy proved to be highly effective in
decreased dependence on smoking within the adolescent population when used in addition to
standard treatment measures.
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EFFICACY OF TREATMENT METHODS
Implications of Results
These results carry heavy implications for the counseling realm, as this can be the
beginning of a revolutionized treatment approach that will actively address the prevalence of
nicotine addiction among minors as well as potential benefits for managing depression. The
research study states that a concern for the current standard smoking dependence treatment is
that a high number of teens are also experiencing symptoms of depression during treatment,
which can lead to the relapse of habit. Because Mindfulness Therapy has shown to be effective in
treating depression, these results depicting a significantly higher success rate in a reduction of
nicotine dependence are an added benefit and can work to handle two birds with one stone. With
this effective treatment, we have the opportunity to save lives as well as investing in the health of
our youth, which will one day be leaders of this country.
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EFFICACY OF TREATMENT METHODS
References
Heppner, P. P., Wampold, B. E., Owen, J., Thompson, M. N., & Wang, K. T. (2016).FResearch
design in counseling(4th ed.). Cengage Learning. ISBN: 9780357670767.F
