No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
National Survey Results on Drug Use from the Monitoring the Future Study, 1975-1993. Volume 2, College Students and Young Adults
Abstract
This report summarizes a national survey of drug use and related attitudes among American college students and young adults. Its data were derived from an ongoing national research and reporting program. The surveys address two major purposes: (1) to serve a social monitoring function so as to characterize trends in certain behaviors in the population; and (2) to develop knowledge so as to increase our understanding of changes in behavior. Distinctions were drawn among demographic subgroups, recorded incidence of first use, trends in use at lower grade levels, and intensity of drug use. Highlighted are key attitudes about illicit drug use, along with perceptions of certain aspects of the social environment, as potential explanatory factors. Attention was focused on frequent drug use rather than simply reporting those who have ever used various drugs. This strategy serves to differentiate levels of seriousness, or extent, of drug involvement. The last decade witnessed an appreciable decrease in the use of numerous illicit drugs among high-school seniors, accompanied by even larger declines in use among college students and young adults. However, these favorable trends in student populations stalled in 1985, indicating the tenuous nature of these improvements. Of particular concern is the possibility of an increased use of specific drugs accompanied by a general increase in drug abuse by younger cohorts. (RJM)
... Analyses used data from the Monitoring the Future (MTF) study; detailed methodology is provided elsewhere ( Bachman et al., 2015;Johnston et al., 2015). Briefly, a nationally representative sample of approximately 15,000 12 th graders (modal age 18) from about 130 schools is surveyed annually. ...
... Analyses used data from the Monitoring the Future (MTF) study; detailed methodology is provided elsewhere ( Bachman et al., 2015;Johnston et al., 2015). Briefly, a nationally representative sample of approximately 15,000 12 th graders (modal age 18) from about 130 schools is surveyed annually. ...
... High-intensity drinking frequency significantly declined after age 21/22, while binge drinking frequency did not show a statistically significant decline. Previous research has shown a significant decrease in 5+ drinking prevalence after age 21/22 ( Johnston et al., 2015;Patrick and Schulenberg, 2011). Greater peaks in high-intensity and binge drinking were documented among men than women. ...
Background:
This study is the first to examine the developmental course of high-intensity drinking (i.e., consuming 10+ drinks in a row) across late adolescence and the transition to adulthood.
Methods:
National longitudinal data (N = 3,718) from Monitoring the Future were used to examine trajectories of 10+ high-intensity drinking from age 18 through 25/26 overall and across sociodemographic subgroups; results were compared with similar analysis of 5+ binge drinking trajectories.
Results:
Results document that 10+ drinkers consume not just a greater quantity of alcohol on a given drinking occasion, but also engage in 5+ drinking more frequently than drinkers who do not report having 10 or more drinks. Developmental patterns for 10+ and 5+ drinking were similar, with peak frequencies reported at age 21/22. Greater peaks in both 10+ and 5+ drinking were documented among men and among college attenders, compared with women and nonattenders, respectively. However, there was a steeper decline in 10+ drinking after age 21/22, indicating that risk for consumption of 10 or more drinks in a row is more clearly focused on the early 20s. Patterns of developmental change in both behaviors were driven largely by college students: No significant age-related change in 10+ drinking was observed among men and women who did not go to college, and no significant age-related change in 5+ drinking was observed among female nonattenders.
Conclusions:
Findings underscore the importance of recognizing high-intensity drinkers as a unique high-risk group, and that college attendance is associated with particularly strong peaks in the developmental course of high-intensity drinking.
... This subset of the study sample resided in their birth state at time of observation and are much less likely to have ever migrated between states. Second, some studies have suggested that college campuses may be insulated from the effects of drinking age policy; that is, that the mix of legal and non-legal drinkers on school campuses provides ready access to alcohol, making youth-access policies like the MLDA less effective Johnston et al., 2015;Plunk et al., 2015;Wagenaar and Toomey, 2002). To ensure that we are capturing this potential campus insulation effect, we examine whether the potential impact of MLDA on chronic disease mortality is stronger among those who did not attend college. ...
... The idea that college attendance could be associated with decreases in the effectiveness of the MLDA is also consistent with other research. For example, binge drinking has decreased in the general population, but is more common on college campuses, where the campus environment likely insulates against policies aimed at curbing underage drinking due to easy access to alcohol coupled with a culture that promotes drinking to excess Johnston et al., 2015). Other researchers have noted that underage college students report being able to obtain alcohol very easily and that legal-age drinkers are their primary source (Wagenaar et al., 1996;Wechsler et al., 2002). ...
... According to Monitoring the Future data, college student heavy drinking (5+ drinks in a row sometime in the prior two weeks) has declined nine percentage points (from 44% to 35%) from 1980 to 2014. Heavy drinking declined by 12 percentage points (from 41% to 29%) during the same period for non-college respondents (Johnston et al., 2015). These differences suggest that adolescents and young adults who do not attend college likely continue to benefit from the 21 MLDA. ...
Background:
The minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) of 21 has been associated with a number of benefits compared to lower MLDAs, including long-term effects, such as reduced risk for alcoholism in adulthood. However, no studies have examined whether MLDA during young adulthood is associated with mortality later in life. We examined whether individuals exposed to permissive MLDA (<21) had higher risk of death from alcohol-related chronic disease compared to those exposed to the 21 MLDA. Because prior work suggests that MLDA affects college students differently, we also conducted conditional analyses based on ever having attended college.
Methods:
Data from the 1990 through 2010 U.S. Multiple Cause-of-Death files were combined with data on the living population and analyzed. We included individuals who turned 18 during the years 1967 to 1990, the period during which MLDA varied across states. We examined records on death from several alcohol-related chronic diseases, employing a quasi-experimental approach to control for unobserved state characteristics and stable time trends.
Results:
Individuals who reported any college attendance did not exhibit significant associations between MLDA and mortality for the causes of death we examined. However, permissive MLDA for those who never attended college was associated with 6% higher odds for death from alcoholic liver disease, 8% higher odds for other liver disease, and 7% higher odds for lip/oral/pharynx cancers (odds ratio [OR] = 1.06, 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.02, 1.10]; OR = 1.08, 95% CI [1.03, 1.13]; OR = 1.07, 95% CI [1.03, 1.12], respectively).
Conclusions:
The 21 MLDA likely protects against risk of death from alcohol-related chronic disease across the lifespan, at least for those who did not attend college. This is consistent with other work that shows that the long-term association between MLDA and alcohol-related outcomes is specific to those who did not attend college.
... The nonmedical use of prescription opioids, sedatives, stimulants, and tranquilizers among adolescents and young adults represents a worldwide public health concern [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. The nonmedical use of prescription drugs (NUPD) is most prevalent in the United States among young adults aged 18 to 25 and remains second only to marijuana as the most prevalent form of illicit drug use among adolescents and young adults [4,5,7]. ...
... The nonmedical use of prescription opioids, sedatives, stimulants, and tranquilizers among adolescents and young adults represents a worldwide public health concern [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. The nonmedical use of prescription drugs (NUPD) is most prevalent in the United States among young adults aged 18 to 25 and remains second only to marijuana as the most prevalent form of illicit drug use among adolescents and young adults [4,5,7]. Indeed, more than one-fourth (26.6%) of young adults reported NUPD in their lifetime while over half (51.9%) reported marijuana use [7]. ...
... While the developmental course of cigarette smoking, binge drinking and marijuana use during the transition from adolescence to young adulthood are well-documented in the United States [11][12][13][14][15][16], relatively little is known about the developmental course associated with NUPD over this key developmental period [10,17]. To date, the majority of research on this topic has been cross-sectional and identified the age-related prevalence and robust correlates associated with NUPD including male sex, race/ethnicity (White), low parental education, low academic performance, no plans for college attendance, truancy/delinquent behavior, more evenings away from home, and other substance use including binge drinking, cigarette smoking, and marijuana use [4,5,7,10,[17][18][19]. ...
Aims:
To identify the developmental course of non-medical use of four separate prescription drug classes (opioids, sedatives, stimulants and tranquilizers) by examining the general functional growth and related covariates during the transition from adolescence to adulthood in the United States.
Design:
Nationally representative probability samples of high school seniors were followed longitudinally across five waves (waves 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5: modal ages 18, 19/20, 21/22, 23/24 and 25/26 years, respectively).
Setting:
Data were collected via self-administered questionnaires to high school seniors and young adults in the United States.
Participants:
The sample consisted of nearly 72 000 individuals in 30 cohorts (high school senior years of 1977-2006) who participated in at least one wave.
Measurements:
Self-reports of annual non-medical use of prescription opioids, sedatives, stimulants, and tranquilizers.
Findings:
The annual non-medical use of prescription opioids, sedatives, stimulants and tranquilizers was highest at wave 1 over the five waves. There was a consistent descending path (linear and quadratic slopes, P < 0.001) in annual non-medical use from baseline across all four prescription drug classes (e.g. opioids linear slope = -0.043 and opioids quadratic slope = 0.034, P < 0.001). While the annual non-medical use of stimulants declined over time (linear slope = 0.063, P < 0.01; quadratic slope = -0.133, P < 0.001), the same decrease was not observed for the annual non-medical use of prescription opioids, sedatives or tranquilizers when controlling for socio-demographic and substance use behaviors at baseline. The covariates associated with the general functional growth differed across the four prescription drug classes.
Conclusions:
The non-medical use of prescription opioids, sedatives, stimulants and tranquilizers appears to peak during late adolescence, suggesting preventive intervention efforts should be initiated in early adolescence. The developmental course of non-medical use is not the same among all four classes of prescription drugs, suggesting that each drug class warrants individual research.
... Marijuana Use-At each time wave (T2-T8), questions about marijuana use (adapted from the Monitoring the Future study [21]) were included. In order to measure the lifetime quantity and frequency of marijuana use from childhood to the mid-thirties, at each time wave questions were asked about the frequency of marijuana use during the period from the last time wave through the current time wave. ...
... e.g., How often have you gotten into a serious fight at school or work? [30]), T2 alcohol use [21], and T2 cigarette smoking [21]. ...
... e.g., How often have you gotten into a serious fight at school or work? [30]), T2 alcohol use [21], and T2 cigarette smoking [21]. ...
Background:
The study assesses the degree to which individuals in different trajectories of marijuana use are similar or different in terms of unconventional behavior, sensation seeking, emotional dysregulation, nicotine dependence, alcohol dependence/abuse, children living at home, and spouse/partner marijuana use at age 43.
Method:
This study used a longitudinal design. The sample participants (N = 548) were first studied at mean age 14 and last studied at mean age 43.
Results:
Six trajectories of marijuana use were identified: chronic/heavy users (3.6 %), increasing users (5.1 %), chronic/occasional users (20 %), decreasers (14.3 %), quitters (22.5 %), and nonusers/experimenters (34.5 %). With three exceptions, as compared with being a nonuser/experimenter, a higher probability of belonging to the chronic/heavy, the increasing, or the chronic/occasional user trajectory group was significantly associated with a greater likelihood of unconventional behavior, sensation seeking, emotional dysregulation, nicotine dependence, alcohol dependence/abuse, not having children who lived at home, and having a spouse/partner who used marijuana at early midlife. In addition, compared with being a quitter, a higher probability of belonging to the chronic/heavy user trajectory group was significantly associated with a higher likelihood of unconventional behavior, sensation seeking, emotional dysregulation, alcohol dependence/abuse, and spouse/partner marijuana use. Implications for intervention are presented.
Conclusions:
Trajectories of marijuana use, especially chronic/heavy use, increasing use, and chronic/occasional use, are associated with unconventional behavior, sensation seeking, emotional dysregulation, nicotine dependence, alcohol dependence/abuse, having children who lived at home, and spouse/partner marijuana use at age 43. The importance of the findings for prevention and treatment programs are discussed.
... Investigaciones recientes en el estado de Colorado demuestran un consumo creciente desde la legalización del uso médico. Después del año 2009, la proporción de adolescentes que creían que el consumo de cannabis era de riesgo disminuyó y las tasas de abuso y dependencia de cannabis han aumentado (35,36). ...
... La citada relación tendría explicación en la interacción gen-ambiente, aunque los mecanismos subyacentes no han sido del todo dilucidados (34). Por otro lado, un gran porcentaje de consumidores de cannabis desarrollan durante la intoxicación experiencias de tipo psicóticas (35), manifestando sobre todo síntomas positivos transitorios (26). ...
Objectives:
Cannabis use has been frequently associated to the experience of psychotic symptoms in the research literature. The objective was to investigate the association between cannabis use and psychotic like experiences in the city of Buenos Aires.
Methods:
A sample of 862 respondents of the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires, aged =18 years, was interviewed regarding their cannabis use, and presence of psychotic like experiences.
Results:
Cannabis use was associated to psychotic like experiences, in particular to perceptual abnormalities (visual and auditory hallucinations). No association was found, however, between frequency of use and number of PLEs.
Conclusions:
Cannabis use could be related to the presence of PLEs. These results are pertinent regarding prevention, and could contribute to the analysis of the safety of cannabis use in the population studied.
... Investigaciones recientes en el estado de Colorado demuestran un consumo creciente desde la legalización del uso médico. Después del año 2009, la proporción de adolescentes que creían que el consumo de cannabis era de riesgo disminuyó y las tasas de abuso y dependencia de cannabis han aumentado (35,36). ...
... La citada relación tendría explicación en la interacción gen-ambiente, aunque los mecanismos subyacentes no han sido del todo dilucidados (34). Por otro lado, un gran porcentaje de consumidores de cannabis desarrollan durante la intoxicación experiencias de tipo psicóticas (35), manifestando sobre todo síntomas positivos transitorios (26). ...
Psychoses are a group of diseases that cause enormous health and emotional burden for the patient and their families. In recent decades, the need for early intervention to improve their prognosis has been highlighted. It has long been postulated that cannabis use is a risk factor added to other factors such as genetics and developmental abnormalities. For this reason, and in the light of a growing movement for legalization of its use, it is vitally important to have reliable information to understand the details of the relationship between cannabis abuse and the development of psychosis. The purpose of this paper is to review the available information on the subject. Beyond some methodological criticisms, epidemiological fndings provide strong evidence that cannabis use may increase the risk of psychotic disorders, a public health message that should be spread.
... Recent national surveys conducted in the United States (U.S.) reported lifetime cannabis use prevalence rates of 16% by the 8 th grade and 58% for young adults aged 19-28 years [1,2]. Additionally, prospective research from Australasia, Europe, and the U.S. has indicated that 10% to 21% of adolescents are at risk for developing a cannabis abuse or dependence disorder (collectively, cannabis use disorder [CUD]) by early adulthood [3][4][5][6]. ...
... Point prevalence rates for CUD at age 24 were not significantly different between participants interviewed between ages 24.6-25.0 and those interviewed after age 25.0 (5% vs. 8%; χ2 [1] = 1.01, p = .316). It is therefore unlikely that the timing of assessment waves influenced the trajectory classes. ...
Aims:
To estimate cannabis use disorder (CUD) trajectory classes from ages 14 to 30 years and compare classes on clinical characteristics, risk factors and psychosocial outcomes.
Design:
Four waves (T1-T4) of data from an epidemiological study of psychopathology among a regionally representative sample. Trajectory classes described risk for CUD as a function of age. The number of classes was determined by model fit.
Setting:
Participants were selected randomly from nine high schools in western Oregon, USA.
Participants:
The sample included 816 participants [age at T1 mean = 16.6, standard deviation (SD) = 1.2; 44% male; 8% non-white].
Measurements:
Participants completed diagnostic interviews, Child Trauma Questionnaire, Social Adjustment Scale and items adapted from the Wisconsin Manual for Assessing Psychotic-Like Experiences.
Findings:
There were three CUD trajectory classes (Lo-Mendell-Rubin likelihood ratio test < 0.001): (1) persistent increasing risk; (2) maturing out, with increasing risk then decreasing risk; and (3) stable low risk. The persistent increasing class had later initial CUD onsets (η2 = 0.16, P < 0.001) and greater cumulative CUD durations (η2 = 0.26, P < 0.001). Male sex [odds ratio (OR) = 2.57, P = 0.018], externalizing disorders between ages 24 and 30 years (OR = 2.64, P < 0.001) and psychotic experiences during early adulthood (Cohen's d = 0.44, P = 0.016) discriminated between the persistent increasing and the maturing-out classes.
Conclusions:
Evidence suggests three distinguishable types of trajectory for development of cannabis use disorder starting in early teens: (1) persistent increasing risk; (2) maturing out, with increasing risk then decreasing risk; and (3) stable low risk.
... Sunder (2016) asserts that a more than 80% agreement score indicates sufficient reliability and repeatability between the appraisers and hence, 10 of the 18 enablers were chosen for additional examination after receiving an agreement score of more than 80%. In accordance with the suggestion made by Johnston et al. (1999), prescreening was carried out to guarantee that only knowledgeable respondents were chosen for participation. After that, we asked 25 professionals in the information technology (IT) sector whether they would be interested in taking part in our survey. ...
Purpose
This study aims to examine the enablers of productivity of enterprise-level Agile development process using modified total interpretative structural modeling (TISM). The two main objectives of the current study are to determine the variables influencing enterprise-level agile development productivity and to develop modified TISM for the corresponding components.
Design/methodology/approach
To identify enablers of the productivity of enterprise-level agile software development process a literature review and opinions of domain experts were collected. A hierarchical relationship among variables that show direct and indirect influence is created using the modified TISM (M-TISM) technique with Cross Impact Matrix-Multiplication Applied to Classification analysis. This study examined and analyzed the relationships between the determinants within the enterprise using a M-TISM technique.
Findings
With the literature review, the study could identify ten enabling factors of the productivity of Agile development process at the enterprise level. Results depict that program increment (PI) planning and scalable backlog management, continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD), agile release trains (ART), agile work culture, delivery excellence, lean and DevOps practices, value stream mapping (VMS), team skills and expertise, collaborative culture, agile coaching, customer engagement have an impact on the productivity of enterprise-level Agile development process. The results show that team collaboration, agile ways of working and customer engagement have a greater impact on productivity improvement for enterprise-level Agile development process.
Research limitations/implications
The developed model is useful for organizations employing scaled Agile development processes in software development. This study provides a recommended listing of key enablers, that may enable productivity improvements in the Agile development process at the enterprise level. Strategists should focus on team collaboration and Agile project management. This study offers a modified TISM model to academicians to help them understand the effects of numerous variables on maintaining the productivity of an enterprise-level Agile. The identified characteristics and their hierarchical structure can help project managers during the execution of Agile projects at the enterprise level, more effectively, increasing their success and productivity.
Originality/value
The study addresses the gap in the literature by interpretative relationships between the identified enabling factors. The model validation is carried out by a panel of nine experts from several information technology organizations deploying Agile software development at the enterprise level. This unique method broadens the knowledge base in Agile software development at scale and provides project managers and practitioners with a practical foundation.
... Substance use was measured using a scale developed by Johnston, O'Malley, and Bachman (1995), the Hebrew translation of which is widely used in Israel (Schiff, Benbenishty, & Hamburger, 2008). Participants were asked to indicate their substance use in the last year. ...
Aims: People diagnosed with ADHD are in a higher risk for anti-social behaviors, substance abuse, emotional distress, and low happiness. It is necessary to know about factors that can predict the increased risk of these comorbidities as well as the protective factors that can be implemented therapeutically, for the purpose of reducing the risk of these functional impairments. Sense of coherence (SOC) was found to protect against various risk factors and health conditions. The present study examined whether SOC correlates with better functioning among adults and adolescents diagnosed with ADHD. Methods: 468 participants aged 15-50, who reported being diagnosed with ADHD, answered an online survey that included validated questionnaires regarding SOC and functional impairment in the following domain: anti-social behaviors, substance abuse, emotional distress, and low happiness. Results: Participants who reported a higher SOC also reported lower functional impairments in all domains. The association between SOC and outcome variables was similar in both genders and in both adolescents and adults. Conclusions: SOC is central for predicting various functional impairments among individuals diagnosed with ADHD. These findings have practical implications for the detection of an at-risk subgroup within the ADHD population and may inform the development of interventions aimed at increasing SOC for people with ADHD. The findings should be further tested in longitudinal and intervention studies.
... Within the 18 to 24 years old cohort, the age group at highest risk for alcohol abuse in the United States (Grant 1997), college students are at higher risk of problem drinking than their peers (Johnston et al. 1998;O'Malley & Johnston 2002). Approximately 44 percent of college students (half of all students who drink) report that they engage in heavy episodic or 'binge' drinking (Wechsler et al. 1994;2000a;2002a), a ...
... Heavy drinking in the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse was defined as consumption of five or more drinks on each of 5 or more days in the past 30 days.Survey of high school graduates. SOURCE: Adapted fromJohnston et al. 1996 and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration 1994. ...
Young adults have a higher prevalence of alcohol consumption and binge drinking than any other age group. They also drink more heavily and experience more negative consequences of drinking. Rates of alcohol abuse and dependence are disproportionately higher among those between the ages of 18 and 29 compared with other age groups. Young adults are also overrepresented among alcohol-related traffic fatalities. Over time, distinct patterns of change in frequent binge drinking occur, and most heavy-drinking young adults appear to "mature out" of abusive drinking patterns as the responsibilities of later adulthood supervene. Drinking patterns are affected by demographic, psychological, behavioral, and social factors as well as minimum drinking age legislation and the cost of alcohol. Motivational programs designed to reduce risks and consequences associated with young-adult drinking may help in reducing alcohol consumption and its consequences.
... The current study found that the lifetime prevalence of substance use in Egyptian university students was 22.5%, which is much lower than the lifetime prevalence (50.7%) in the same population in the United States. 17 The lifetime prevalence of substance use among university students in African countries ranges from 53.6 in Ethiopia 18 Kenya. 19 However, the prevalence of substance use among university students in Islamic countries was much less than these figures. ...
Background: Substance use is a public health problem among adolescents and young adults in Egypt.
Objective: The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence and correlates of substance use among Egyptian university students.
Methods: This study randomly included 1176 (57.4% were male individuals) university students, with almost two thirds from practical course majors, with the remaining students from theoretical course majors. They answered a questionnaire of sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, which included the drug use disorders identification test, which was used to estimate student drug-related problems and dependence.
Results: Lifetime substance use among students is 22.5%, with 156 (58.9%) demonstrating a polysubstance need, 221 (83.4%) using cannabis, 145 (54.7%) using tramadol, and 106 (40%) using alcohol. There is a significant association between substance use and older age, male sex, those in theoretical education, those living in an urban residence, and those who smoke cigarettes. In the group that used substances, currently, 114 (43%) experience drug-related problems and 43 (16.2%) experience dependence. Students with both issues are more likely to use alcohol, tramadol, or polysubstance than those without them; students with drug dependence are more likely to come from theoretical colleges, to smoke cigarettes, or to use substances at a younger age than those with drug-related problems.
Conclusions: One in 5 university students used substances at least once in their lives. The most common included cannabis, tramadol, and alcohol, respectively. The risk factors for substance use were older age, male sex, urban residence, theoretical education, and cigarette smoking.
... And last, the nationally representative survey of college students cited is not recent; therefore, these numbers have likely changed in the interim. However, since that survey was completed, more emerging tobacco products have become available to this population and given the fact that they are drawn to new tobacco products (Johnston et al., 2008), it is not likely that the percentage has decreased. ...
Little is known about polytobacco use in college students. One nationally representative survey indicated 51.3% of tobacco-using college students used more than one product, which may increase risk of tobacco-related disease and premature death. The purpose of this study was to examine the association of intention to quit smoking (ITQS) cigarettes with polytobacco use status, controlling for frequency of tobacco product use and cigarette smoking intensity as measured by cigarettes per day (CPD). Data are from a larger quasi-experimental study conducted at a large state university in the Southeastern United States. Analysis is based on the combined sample of current smokers from two randomly selected cohorts surveyed two months apart. Polytobacco users (n = 52) were as likely as cigarette-only users (n = 81) to intend to quit smoking. Compared to students who used tobacco products 1–9 days per month, students using 10–29 days per month or daily reported higher ITQS. Higher intensity smokers (>10 CPD) were 71% less likely to indicate ITQS, compared to lower intensity smokers (≤10 CPD) (p =.025). College student polytobacco users were as likely as those using only cigarettes to intend to quit smoking. Interventions are needed to target college student polytobacco users as well as cigarette smokers as both groups may intend to quit. Smokers using 10 or fewer CPD and those who use tobacco products daily or 10–29 days per month may be more motivated to quit than college students who smoke with more intensity but who use tobacco products less frequently.
... Qualitative methods can improve understanding of how and why YAs decide to start, persist, or cease using substances, as they describe these processes from their point of view, and what these behavior changes mean for them. This is essential for improving resilience models in drug prevention and treatment programs (Johnston, O'Malley, & Bachman, 1999;Masten, Faden, Zucker, & Spear, 2008). ...
Objective:
Qualitative interviews with 183 young adults (YA) in the follow-up of the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children With and Without ADHD (MTA) provide rich information on beliefs and expectations regarding ADHD, life's turning points, medication use, and substance use (SU).
Method:
Participants from four MTA sites were sampled to include those with persistent and atypically high SU, and a local normative comparison group (LNCG). Respondents were encouraged to "tell their story" about their lives, using a semistructured conversational interview format.
Results:
Interviews were reliably coded for interview topics. ADHD youth more often desisted from SU because of seeing others going down wrong paths due to SU. Narratives revealed very diverse accounts and explanations for SU-ADHD influences.
Conclusion:
Qualitative methods captured the perspectives of YAs regarding using substances. This information is essential for improving resilience models in drug prevention and treatment programs and for treatment development for this at-risk population.
... Among young adults living outside their parent's home over the past 20 years there is a higher likelihood of marijuana and alcohol use[12]and college students living on campus are five times more likely to initiate marijuana use than students who live off campus[13]. The number of college students using any illicit drug has risen incrementally since 2006, with the increase being largely attributed to higher instances of marijuana use[14]. The annual prevalence of marijuana use among college students in 2013 was 36 percent[10]. ...
In Western and European cultures where marriage and parenthood are increasingly delayed to the late twenties and early thirties, a distinct developmental stage between adolescence and adulthood has been described as “emerging” or “young” adults. Development theory suggests that these “younger” adults have less social control and exercise higher levels of impulsivity and risky behavior than their older counterparts. This study examined the effect of age on treatment retention among adults with co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders enrolled in private, residential treatment. Study participants included 929 adults (198 young adults, 18-25 years, and 761 older adults, ≥ 26 years) receiving private residential treatment in the U.S. Bivariate analyses, life tables, and Cox regression (survival analyses) were used to examine the effects of age on treatment retention.
... Young adults also report high rates of alcohol-related problems, including significant co-morbidities; unintentional injuries such as motor vehicle accidents; sexually transmitted infections; loss of productivity; broken relationships; and effects on physical health[1,46]. Unfortunately, numerous barriers prevent young adults from seeking help to reduce drinking[44]and rates of hazardous drinking among young adults have remained relatively unchanged in recent years[17]. Existing methods to detect a drinking occasion include self-reports, breathalyzer or transdermal alcohol monitors (e.g., SCRAM ankle bracelet, WrisTAS)[38]. Self-reports of alcohol use have shown validity in specific contexts[53]. ...
Alcohol use in young adults is common, with high rates of morbidity and mortality largely due to periodic, heavy drinking episodes (HDEs). Behavioral interventions delivered through electronic communication modalities (e.g., text messaging) can reduce the frequency of HDEs in young adults, but effects are small. One way to amplify these effects is to deliver support materials proximal to drinking occasions, but this requires knowledge of when they will occur. Mobile phones have built-in sensors that can potentially be useful in monitoring behavioral patterns associated with the initiation of drinking occasions. The objective of our work is to explore the detection of daily-life behavioral markers using mobile phone sensors and their utility in identifying drinking occasions. We utilized data from 30 young adults aged 21-28 with past hazardous drinking and collected mobile phone sensor data and daily Experience Sampling Method (ESM) of drinking for 28 consecutive days. We built a machine learning-based model that is 96.6% accurate at identifying non-drinking, drinking and heavy drinking episodes. We highlight the most important features for detecting drinking episodes and identify the amount of historical data needed for accurate detection. Our results suggest that mobile phone sensors can be used for automated, continuous monitoring of at-risk populations to detect drinking episodes and support the delivery of timely interventions.
... In terms of generalization to other students, as noted earlier, our sample closely approximates the demographics for the whole university. Additionally, when the prevalence of substance use in our sample was compared to two large surveys of participants of similar age-the College Alcohol Study ( Knight et al., 2002) and Monitoring the Future ( Johnston, O'Malley, Bachman, & Schulenberg, 2009)-rates of substance use were similar across studies ( Dick et al., 2014). One of our proxies for socioeconomic status, parental education, also appears consistent with the 2011 national undergraduate student sample summarized by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) ( National Center for Education Statistics, 2014). ...
Background:
For American college students, alcohol and cigarette use are important health concerns, and employment concurrent with school attendance is on the rise. Given the lifelong importance of employment and substance use trajectories begun in college, parsing out the relationship between the two is meaningful.
Objectives:
This study's purpose is to determine whether employment during college is associated with substance use.
Methods:
Cross-sectional associations between employment (work hours, earnings) and substance use (drinking frequency, drinking quantity, smoking frequency) were estimated using partial proportional odds models in a sample of N = 1457 freshmen attending a large, public 4-year university in 2011, after accounting for demographics, personality, social environment, and parental influences.
Results:
Working 10 more hours and earning $50 more per week as a freshman had modest positive associations with higher smoking frequency and with moderate drinking frequency and quantity prior to adjustment. After adjustment, work hours remained modestly associated with moderate drinking frequency and quantity. No adjusted associations were found among employment measures and smoking or between weekly earnings and drinking frequency. Different relationships emerged for moderate versus heavy alcohol use frequency and quantity.
Conclusions:
Both employment and substance use are commonplace among college freshmen. After extensive controls for potential confounders, the relationship between the two appears modest. Employment may yet play a role in college student substance use, but work hours and earnings are likely only small parts of a larger web of influences on drinking and smoking.
... In this section, we briefly review some related work on study of use of marijuana and other substance, including both traditional methods of recruiting participants and more recent approaches using social media data. Johnston et al. conducted follow-up surveys on young adults regarding their behaviors related to drug use in [9]. Similar recruitment based approaches were also used to study the effect of marijuana use in adolescent on their depressive symptoms and IQ development [10] [11]. ...
Drug use and abuse is a serious societal problem. The fast development and adoption of social media and smart mobile devices in recent years bring about new opportunities for advancing computer-based strategies for understanding and intervention of drug-related behaviors. However, the existing literature still lacks principled ways of building computational models for supporting effective analysis of large-scale, often unstructured social media data. Part of the challenge stems from the difficulty of obtaining so-called ground-truth data that are typically required for training computational models. This paper presents a progressive semi-supervised learning approach to identifying Twitter tweets that are related to personal and recreational use of marijuana. Based on a small, labeled dataset, the proposed approach first learns optimal mapping of raw features from the tweets for classification, using a method of weakly hierarchical lasso. The learned feature model is then used to support unsupervised clustering of Web-scale data. Experiments with realistic data crawled from Twitter are used to validate the proposed approach, demonstrating its effectiveness.
... Moreover, national studies report findings similar to some of those reported here. For example, a report by the Pew Research Center [33] showed a dramatic shift in approval of marijuana legalization in national surveys, from 31% in 2000 to 53% in 2015, and the Monitoring the Future study [34] found similar increases among 27-to 30-year olds in approval of occasional adult use, from 29% in 1999 to 50% in 2014. These shifts mirror approval of adult use in our sample, from 36% in 1999 to 52% in 2014. ...
Purpose:
The recent legalization of nonmedical marijuana use in several U.S. states has unknown implications for those who are actively parenting. This study examined parents' reactions to marijuana legalization and changes in attitudes and behaviors over time.
Methods:
Data were from a gender-balanced, ethnically diverse sample of 395 parents in Washington State who were participating in the longitudinal Seattle Social Development Project. Participants were interviewed 15 times between 1985 (age 10) and 2014 (age 39). Adult nonmedical marijuana use was legalized in Washington in 2012 and retail outlets opened in 2014.
Results:
Results showed (1) one third of parents incorrectly believed the legal age of nonmedical marijuana use to be 18; (2) significant increase in approval of adult marijuana use and decrease in perceived harm of regular use; (3) wide opposition to teen use and use around one's children; and (4) substantial increases in frequency of use and marijuana use disorder among parents who used.
Conclusions:
Despite increased acceptance and frequency of adult use, parents remain widely opposed to teen use but need facts and strategies for talking with their children about marijuana.
... Any increase in cannabis use among youth after legalization will probably be preceded by reductions in the perceived risks, and increases in the social acceptability, of using cannabis. This pattern was observed with increased cannabis use in the Monitoring the Future Surveys in the United States in the 1970s and the converse was observed during the 1980s, when increased perceptions of risk and declining social acceptability were followed by a decline in cannabis use [54,55]. The Monitoring the Future data will provide a useful baseline against which to evaluate any effects of legalization on these attitudes. ...
Background and aims: Since 2012 four US states have legalized the retail sale of cannabis for recreational use by adults, and more are likely to follow. This report aimed to (1) briefly describe the regulatory regimes so far implemented; (2) outline their plausible effects on cannabis use and cannabis-related harm; and (3) suggest what research is needed to evaluate the public health impact of these policy changes. Method: We reviewed the drug policy literature to identify: (1) plausible effects of legalizing adult recreational use on cannabis price and availability; (2) factors that may increase or limit these effects; (3) pointers from studies of the effects of legalizing medical cannabis use; and (4) indicators of cannabis use and cannabis-related harm that can be monitored to assess the effects of these policy changes. Results: Legalization of recreational use will probably increase use in the long term, but the magnitude and timing of any increase is uncertain. It will be critical to monitor: cannabis use in household and high school surveys; cannabis sales; the number of cannabis plants legally produced; and the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content of cannabis. Indicators of cannabis-related harms that should be monitored include: car crash fatalities and injuries; emergency department presentations; presentations to addiction treatment services; and the prevalence of regular cannabis use among young people in mental health services and the criminal justice system. Conclusions: Plausible effects of legalizing recreational cannabis use in the United States include substantially reducing the price of cannabis and increasing heavy use and some types of cannabis-related harm among existing users. In the longer term it may also increase the number of new users.
... While the nonmedical use of stimulant medications has increased significantly over the past decade among U.S. adolescents, the long-term adverse health consequences associated with this behavior have not been determined (Bagot and Kaminer, 2014;Johnston et al., 2015;Kaminer, 2013;Miech et al., 2015;Smith and Farah, 2011;Young et al., 2012). A comprehensive review of relevant research found that the cognitive benefits associated with nonmedical use of stimulant medications among individuals without ADHD were minimal relative to the medical risks (Bagot and Kaminer, 2014). ...
Background:
The age of onset (early vs. late) and context (medical vs. nonmedical) of exposure to stimulant medications for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have been identified as important factors in the addictive potential of these controlled medications. This study examines the role of medical and nonmedical contexts in the association between early exposure to stimulant medications and substance use and substance-related problems among adolescents.
Methods:
A Web-based survey was self-administered by Detroit-area secondary school students (N=4755) between the 2009-10 and 2012-13 school years. The sample consisted of 51% females, 62% Whites, 32% African-Americans, and 6% from other racial categories.
Results:
During the study period, an estimated 11.7% of respondents were ever diagnosed with ADHD. Approximately 6.7% (n=322) of respondents indicated lifetime medical use of prescription stimulants while 2.6% (n=124) indicated lifetime nonmedical use. The odds of substance use and substance-related problems were significantly lower among those who initiated earlier medical use of stimulant medications relative to later medical initiation. In contrast, the odds of substance use and substance-related problems were significantly greater among those who initiated earlier nonmedical use of stimulant medications relative to later nonmedical initiation.
Conclusions:
More than one in every ten adolescents in this epidemiologically-derived community-based sample was diagnosed with ADHD. This is the first investigation to demonstrate that context (medical vs. nonmedical) plays a critical role in the relationship between early exposure to stimulant medications and the subsequent risk of substance-related problems during adolescence within the same diverse youth sample.
... Adolescence is a transitional developmental period between childhood and adulthood, during which drug abuse often begins [1], and psychopathologies emerge or change symptomology [2]. These unique clinical features are thought to be mediated by changes in the structural [3], functional [4], and neurochemical [5] organization of the brain. ...
Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by heightened vulnerability to illicit drug use and the onset of neuropsychiatric disorders. These clinical phenomena likely share common neurobiological substrates, as mesocorticolimbic dopamine systems actively mature during this period. Whereas prior studies have examined age-dependent changes in dopamine receptor binding, there have been fewer functional analyses. The aim of the present study was therefore to determine whether the functional consequences of D1 and D2-like activation are age-dependent. Adolescent and adult rats were given direct D1 and D2 agonists, alone and in combination. Locomotor and stereotypic behaviors were measured, and brains were collected for analysis of mRNA expression for the immediate early genes (IEGs), cfos and arc. Adolescents showed enhanced D2-like receptor control of locomotor and repetitive behaviors, which transitioned to dominant D1-like mechanisms in adulthood. When low doses of agonists were co-administered, adults showed supra-additive behavioral responses to D1/D2 combinations, whereas adolescents did not, which may suggest age differences in D1/D2 synergy. D1/D2-stimulated IEG expression was particularly prominent in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST). Given the BNST's function as an integrator of corticostriatal, hippocampal, and stress-related circuitry, and the importance of neural network dynamics in producing behavior, an exploratory functional network analysis of regional IEG expression was performed. This data-driven analysis demonstrated similar developmental trajectories as those described in humans and suggested that dopaminergic drugs alter forebrain coordinated gene expression age dependently. D1/D2 recruitment of stress nuclei into functional networks was associated with low behavioral output in adolescents. Network analysis presents a novel tool to assess pharmacological action, and highlights critical developmental changes in functional neural circuitry. Immature D1/D2 interactions in adolescents may underlie their unique responses to drugs of abuse and vulnerability to psychopathology. These data highlight the need for age-specific pharmacotherapy design and clinical application in adolescence.
Rationale:
Amphetamines are used as medications but are also misused as cognitive enhancers by healthy subjects and may have additional effects on social cognition.
Methods:
We investigated the acute effects of single, high, equimolar doses of D-amphetamine (40 mg) and lisdexamfetamine (100 mg) on social cognition and cognitive performance using a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, cross-over design in 24 healthy volunteers. Effects on social cognition were assessed using the Facial Emotion Recognition Task (FERT), Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET), and Sexual Arousal Task (SAT). Cognitive performance was measured using the Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST), Digit Span (DS), Stop-Signal Task (SST), and Mackworth Clock Test (MCT).
Results:
D-Amphetamine and lisdexamfetamine had small effects on measures of social cognition. There were no effects on emotion recognition on the FERT. D-Amphetamine increased direct empathy on the MET, but only for positive stimuli. Both amphetamines increased ratings of pleasantness and attractiveness on the SAT in response to sexual but also to neutral stimuli. D-Amphetamine and lisdexamfetamine increased cognitive performance (go-accuracy and vigilance on the SST and MCT, respectively). Lisdexamfetamine increased processing speed on the DSST. Neither drug had an effect on the DS.
Conclusion:
Single, high, equimolar doses of D-amphetamine and lisdexamfetamine enhanced certain aspects of cognitive performance in healthy non-sleep-deprived subjects. Both amphetamines also slightly altered aspects of social cognition. Whether these small effects also influence social interaction behavior in amphetamine users remains to be investigated.
Trial registration:
The study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02668926).
Emerging adulthood is characterized by not only opportunity and transition but also a substantial increase in risk behaviors (Fosco et al. Journal of Family Psychology, 26(4), 565–575, 2012; Johnston et al. 2016). Building on prior research, we tested a mediational model hypothesizing that Family Check-Up (FCU) intervention effects on young adult risk would be mediated by increases in self-regulation, and that these changes would continue to affect risk behavior as high school youths transitioned to young adulthood. We also predicted that the intent-to-treat intervention would be associated with lower levels of risk in young adulthood and that this effect would be accounted for by intervention-induced improvements in self-regulation during early adolescence, which in turn would prevent young adult risk. Participants were 593 adolescents and their families recruited from three public middle schools and randomized either to the FCU or to a control group. Item response theory was applied to construct a measure of high-risk behavior at this age, including risk behaviors such as substance abuse, high-risk sexual behavior, and vocational risk. Results suggested that changes in children’s self-regulation that occurred early during the middle school years, and that were associated with the FCU, led to reductions in risk behaviors during young adulthood. This study builds on our prior research that has suggested that effects of the FCU during middle school lead to changes in a range of risk behaviors during the transition to high school (Fosco et al. Journal of School Psychology, 51(4), 455–468, 2013; Stormshak et al. School Mental Health, 2(2), 82–9, 2010).
RationaleLysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and other serotonergic hallucinogens can induce profound alterations of consciousness and mystical-type experiences, with reportedly long-lasting effects on subjective well-being and personality. Methods
We investigated the lasting effects of a single dose of LSD (200 μg) that was administered in a laboratory setting in 16 healthy participants. The following outcome measures were assessed before and 1 and 12 months after LSD administration: Persisting Effects Questionnaire (PEQ), Mysticism Scale (MS), Death Transcendence Scale (DTS), NEO-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI), and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). ResultsOn the PEQ, positive attitudes about life and/or self, positive mood changes, altruistic/positive social effects, positive behavioral changes, and well-being/life satisfaction significantly increased at 1 and 12 months and were subjectively attributed by the subjects to the LSD experience. Five-Dimensions of Altered States of Consciousness (5D-ASC) total scores, reflecting acutely induced alterations in consciousness, and Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ30) total scores correlated with changes in well-being/life satisfaction 12 months after LSD administration. No changes in negative attitudes, negative mood, antisocial/negative social effects, or negative behavior were attributed to the LSD experience. After 12 months, 10 of 14 participants rated their LSD experience as among the top 10 most meaningful experiences in their lives. Five participants rated the LSD experience among the five most spiritually meaningful experiences in their lives. On the MS and DTS, ratings of mystical experiences significantly increased 1 and 12 months after LSD administration compared with the pre-LSD screening. No relevant changes in personality measures were found. Conclusions
In healthy research subjects, the administration of a single dose of LSD (200 μg) in a safe setting was subjectively considered a personally meaningful experience that had long-lasting subjective positive effects. Trial registrationRegistration identification number: NCT01878942.
Background and objectives:
Relatively little is known about the neuropsychological profiles of college students who misuse prescription stimulant medications.
Methods:
Data presented are from college students aged 18-28 years who misused prescription stimulants prescribed for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and controls (no prescription stimulant misuse). Students were assessed neuropsychologically using the self-report Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Functioning (BRIEF-A), the Cambridge Automated Neuropsychological Test and Battery (CANTAB), and other tests of cognitive functioning. The analyses included 198 controls (age 20.7 ± 2.6 years) and 100 prescription stimulant misusers (age 20.7 ± 1.7 years).
Results:
On the BRIEF-A, misusers were more likely than controls to endorse greater dysfunction on 8 of 12 measures including Inhibition, Self Monitor, Initiation, Working Memory, and Plan/Organize, when adjusting for race and sex (all p's < .05). Similarly, when dichotomizing the BRIEF-A as abnormal (T score ≥ 65), misusers had more abnormalities on five of nine subscales, as well as all major indices (p's < .05). Misusers also performed worse on several subtests of the CANTAB and standardized cognitive battery (p's < .05). A proxy of prescription stimulant misuse frequency was positively correlated with greater executive dysfunction on the BRIEF-A.
Discussion and conclusions:
These data demonstrate elevated risk for neuropsychological dysfunction among students who misuse prescription stimulants compared to non-misusing peers. The presence of ADHD contributed significantly to these cognitive findings. Students who misuse prescription stimulants should be screened for neuropsychological dysfunction.
Scientific significance:
These data may better elucidate the neuropsychological profile of college-aged prescription stimulant misusers. (Am J Addict 2017;26:379-387).
The current study examined predictors of marijuana use among adults, including subsamples of adults who are actively parenting (i.e., have regular face-to-face contact with a child) and those who have no children. Participants were a community sample of 808 adults and two subsamples drawn from the full group: 383 adults who were actively parenting and 135 who had no children. Multilevel models examined predictors of marijuana use in these three groups from ages 27 to 39. Becoming a parent was associated with a decrease in marijuana use. Regular marijuana use in young adulthood (ages 21-24), partner marijuana use, and pro-marijuana attitudes increased the likelihood of past-year marijuana use among all participants. Being a primary caregiver (among parents) was associated with less marijuana use. Overall, predictors of marijuana use were similar for all adults, regardless of parenting status. Study results suggest that the onset of parenthood alone may be insufficient to reduce adult marijuana use. Instead, preventive intervention targets may include changing adult pro-marijuana attitudes and addressing marijuana use behaviors of live-in partners. Lastly, universal approaches targeting parents and nonparents may be effective for general adult samples.
Objective
We created the Daily Sessions, Frequency, Age of Onset, and Quantity of Cannabis Use Inventory (DFAQ-CU) because the current lack of psychometrically sound inventories for measuring these dimensions of cannabis use has impeded research on the effects of cannabis in humans.
Method
A sample of 2,062 cannabis users completed the DFAQ-CU and was used to assess the DFAQ-CU’s factor structure and reliability. To assess validity, a subsample of 645 participants completed additional measures of cannabis dependence and problems (Marijuana Smoking History Questionnaire [MSHQ], Timeline Followback [TLFB], Cannabis Abuse Screening Test [CAST], Cannabis Use Disorders Identification Test Revised [CUDIT-R], Cannabis Use Problems Identification Test [CUPIT], and Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test [AUDIT]).
Results
A six-factor structure was revealed, with factors measuring: daily sessions, frequency, age of onset, marijuana quantity, cannabis concentrate quantity, and edibles quantity. The factors were reliable, with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients ranging from .69 (daily sessions) to .95 (frequency). Results further provided evidence for the factors’ convergent (MSHQ, TLFB), predictive (CAST, CUDIT-R, CUPIT), and discriminant validity (AUDIT).
Conclusions
The DFAQ-CU is the first psychometrically sound inventory for measuring frequency, age of onset, and quantity of cannabis use. It contains pictures of marijuana to facilitate the measurement of quantity of marijuana used, as well as questions to assess the use of different forms of cannabis (e.g., concentrates, edibles), methods of administering cannabis (e.g., joints, hand pipes, vaporizers), and typical THC levels. As such, the DFAQ-CU should help facilitate research on frequency, quantity, and age of onset of cannabis use.
The present study examines the influence of emotional intelligence on smoking behavior (SB) patterns among 219 young adults belonging to the age group of 19–27 years pursuing management studies in India. The study is conducted with an aim to understand the relevance and importance of emotions in human behavior. The primary data collected are analyzed by binomial and multinomial logistic regression analyses. The study suggests that emotional intelligence has a significant impact on SB considering sex and age as moderators. It has been observed among the sample that males have higher tendency to smoke than females, and that age has no impact on the SB pattern. For the study, the reference category taken is non-smokers.
The U.S. military has expressed concern about the influence of deployment and combat exposure on the criminal behavior of personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. This study examines the role of behavioral health risk and protective factors associated with combat exposure and criminal and aggressive behavior in active duty Army and Naval personnel. Data from this cross-sectional study are based on two large anonymous, population-based health-related behavior surveys. Findings show that the proportion of all active duty Army and Naval service personnel who reported encounters with law enforcement or committed one or more aggressive acts in the past year increased from 19.41% in 2005 to 22.58% in 2008. Substance use, especially illicit drug use, and mental health problems were significant correlates of criminal and aggressive behavior, as were younger age, male sex, high impulsivity, and work/family stress. Path modeling suggested that several variables, notably combat exposure and history of childhood abuse, appeared to manifest their influence on criminal or aggressive behavior through increases in substance use and mental health problems. The potential mediating influence of substance use and mental health on combat and other trauma experiences has significant implications for preventing criminal and aggressive behavior among U.S. active duty military personnel.
Drug use and related disorders are highly associated with race/ethnicity, with rates varying by drug type and race/ethnic group. Substance use is widespread among adolescents of whites, American Indians/Alaska Natives, African Americans, and Hispanics. Data show that drug-related deaths vary by race/ethnicity and gender. Men are twice as likely to die of a drug overdose as women, while non-Hispanic whites account for 82% of all drug-induced deaths. However, currently American Indians/Alaska Natives have the highest rates of drug-related mortality at 17.1 per 100,000 population compared to 16.6 among non-Hispanic whites. This reflects a change from the 1980s and 1990s when non-Hispanic blacks and whites had higher drug-related mortality rates. Research has documented that sexual minority students have a higher prevalence of drug use than their heterosexual counterparts. Research should continue to unpack the contexts that give rise to higher drug use among sexual minorities.
Background: Smartphone technology enables treatment providers to deliver targeted outpatient support “on site” in “real time,” but this will require a better understanding of peer networks and substance users’ acquisition of drugs. Objectives: This study sought to understand contextual factors associated with risky levels of alcohol consumption. Methods: A total of 280 participants answered an online survey, completed the AUDIT and indicated their numbers of regular drinking partners, and the number of times and places alcohol was normally consumed. Results: Hazardous drinkers had a greater number of drinking partners and drank alcohol at a greater number of times and locations. Alcohol dependence was associated with alcohol use in more times and places, but was not linked to the numbers of drinking partners. Models drawn from foraging literature were used to describe the data. Conclusions/Importance: Patterns of alcohol foraging could be described by power laws, and such power laws could be used to compare foraging for a range of substances. A consideration of foraging behavior may inform location-aware services targeting risky substance use.
Objective: A theory-based protection/risk model was applied to explain variation in college students’ heavy episodic drinking. Key aims were (1) to establish that psychosocial and behavioral protective factors and risk factors can account for cross-sectional and developmental variation in heavy episodic drinking, and (2) to examine whether protection moderates the impact of risk on heavy episodic drinking. Method: Random- and fixed-effects maximum likelihood regression analyses were used to examine data from a three-wave longitudinal study. Data were collected in fall of 2002, spring of 2003, and spring of 2004 from college students (N = 975; 548 men) who were first-semester freshmen at Wave 1. Results: Psychosocial and behavioral protective and risk factors accounted for substantial variation in college-student heavy episodic drinking, and protection moderated the impact of risk. Findings held for both genders and were consistent across the three separate waves of data. Key predictors of heavy episodic drinking were social and individual controls protection (e.g., parental sanctions for transgression and attitudinal intolerance of deviance, respectively); models risk (peer models for substance use); behavioral protection (attendance at religious services); and behavioral risk (cigarette smoking and marijuana use). Changes in controls protection, models risk, and opportunity risk were associated with change in heavy episodic drinking. Conclusions: An explanatory model based on both psychosocial and behavioral protective and risk factors was effective in accounting for variation in college-student heavy episodic drinking. A useful heuristic was demonstrated through the articulation of models, controls, support, opportunity, and vulnerability to characterize the social context, and of controls, vulnerability, and other behaviors to characterize individuals.
Background:
Prior studies suggest a link between head injuries and substance use but do not routinely capture mechanisms connecting the two.
Objectives:
The goal of the study was to explore whether past head injuries predicted current substance use among young adults, taking factors such as stress, self-esteem, temper, and risk-taking into consideration.
Methods:
Data were drawn from a web-based survey conducted in 2014 and 2015 at a public university in the United States (n = 897). Questions were asked about history of head injuries as well as past 12-month binge drinking, marijuana use, and prescription drug misuse. To evaluate the association between head injury and substance use, two logistic regression models were performed for each substance. Head injury was first regressed on the outcome, then related risk factors were entered into the models to determine whether they explained any association between injury and outcome.
Results:
A history of multiple head injuries was associated with increased odds of bingeing, marijuana, and prescription drug use. Prior delinquency and risk-taking accounted for the associations with bingeing and marijuana use. Taking all variables into consideration, multiple head injuries were associated with greater odds for prescription drug misuse.
Conclusions:
Results suggest the need to give consideration to a range of concomitant variables when considering behavioral outcomes associated with head injury. Head injuries may be a marker of a constellation of risk-taking behaviors that contributes to substance use. For those with multiple injuries, misuse of prescription drugs may be an attempt to cope with lingering side effects.
BACKGROUND: College students who engage in high-risk drinking patterns are thought to "mature out" of these patterns as they transition to adult roles. College graduation is an important milestone demarcating this transition. We examine longitudinal changes in quantity and frequency of alcohol consumption between the college years and the 4 years after graduation and explore variation in these changes by gender and race/ethnicity. METHODS: Participants were 1,128 college graduates enrolled in a longitudinal prospective study of health-risk behaviors. Standard measures of alcohol consumption were gathered during 8 annual personal interviews (76 to 91% annual follow-up). Graduation dates were culled from administrative data and self-report. Spline models, in which separate trajectories were modeled before and after the "knot" of college graduation, were fit to 8 annual observations of past-year alcohol use frequency and quantity (typical number of drinks/drinking day). RESULTS: Frequency increased linearly pregraduation, slightly decreased postgraduation, and then rebounded to pregraduation levels. Pregraduation frequency increased more steeply among individuals who drank more heavily at college entry. Quantity decreased linearly during college, followed by quadratic decreases after graduation. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that the postcollege "maturing-out" phenomenon might be attributable to decreases in alcohol quantity but not frequency. High-frequency drinking patterns that develop during college appear to persist several years postgraduation. Language: en
Purpose:
To identify trajectories of smoking behaviors of a cohort of youth followed through young adulthood from 2000 to 2013.
Design:
The Minnesota Adolescent Community Cohort study, a population-based cohort study.
Setting:
Nationwide, originating in the Midwestern United States.
Participants:
Cohort of youth surveyed for 14 years beginning at ages 12 to 16 (N = 4241 at baseline; 59% recruitment rate).
Measures:
Main variable of interest was the number of days smoked in the past 30 days. Also included time-varying and time-invariant covariates.
Analysis:
We utilized growth mixture modeling to group individuals into trajectories over time.
Results:
We identified 5 distinct trajectories: nonsmokers (59.5%), early-onset regular smokers (14.2%), occasional smokers (11.5%), late-onset regular smokers (9.4%), and quitters (5.3%). Adjusted models showed that early- and late-onset regular smokers (compared to nonsmokers) had lower odds of attending or graduating from a 4-year college ( P < .05). Participants in all smoking classes compared to nonsmokers had greater odds of having more close friends who smoked ( P < .05).
Conclusion:
Our results show that individuals in their teens through young adulthood can be classified into 5 smoking trajectories. More people in this age range remained abstainers than found in most previous studies; however, a sizable group was identified as regular smokers by the time they reached young adulthood. Interventions targeted at teens, including those that address social and environmental influences, are clearly still needed to prevent escalation of smoking as they move toward young adulthood.
Purpose:
This study assessed whether college student (1) protective behavioral strategy (PBS) use differed between those who reached legal intoxication during their most recent drinking episode compared to those who did not reach the legal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) threshold, and (2) frequency of PBS use could explain the variance associated with BAC during the most recent drinking episode, above and beyond one's sex, age, and involvement in the Greek system.
Design:
Secondary data analysis of the American College of Health Association's National College Health Assessment.
Setting:
Forty-four distinct campuses were included.
Participants:
A total of 21479 college students were included.
Measures:
BAC and PBS were measured.
Analysis:
The data were analyzed by conducting both independent samples t-tests and a multiple regression model. Effect sizes are reported.
Results:
Participants who reached legal intoxication used PBS less frequently ( P < .001; d = 0.80). Frequency of PBS use had the strongest unique contribution to the regression model (β = -.315, P < .001), such that participants with higher BAC reported less frequent use of PBS.
Conclusion:
Interventions should seek to develop strategies that encourage college student use of PBS prior to, and during, drinking episodes. More frequent use of PBS can reduce intoxication as well as occurrence of alcohol-associated consequences.
The college years are a time for developing independence and separating from one’s family, and it is also a time in which substance use often escalates. This study examined the relationships between use of substances and interpersonal guilt, an emotion that can arise from feelings about separation, among 1,979 college students. Regular users of alcohol, cigarettes, cannabis, and other illicit drugs were compared with non-regular users of each substance. Sequential linear regression, controlling for confounding variables, examined relationships between regular use of each substance and scores on a guilt index. Risky drinkers and daily smokers had significantly more interpersonal guilt than their peers who did not regularly use these substances. In contrast, regular cannabis users had significantly less guilt than non-regular cannabis users. These data suggest that substance use among college students may be related to interpersonal guilt and family separation issues, and this relationship may vary across substances.
Objective: The age of using psychoactive drug has decreased in recent years while it has threatened children. This study considers types of psychoactive drugs used, risk factors and causal attributions among primary school 5th-grade students in TRNC. Methods: The study was conducted with 2345 students during May-June 2015 in 75 public primary schools and two private primary schools that are dependent to Ministry of Education and Culture in TRNC. In this study, USA Department of Education “California Healthy Kids Survey” was used by adapting to Turkish. Results: The study found the lifetime prevalence of cigarette use %10.9, alcohol use %23.5 and illicit drug use %1.2. Half of the students (%51.3) reported they have known name of an illicit drug other than cigarette and alcohol. The most known illicit drug is “bonsai” (%5.3) among students. Living in a city, having brother/sister, having separate parents and being exposed to bad behaviour are predictive risk factors for using cigarette and alcohol. On the other hand, being male, being exposed to bad behavior and physical violence are predictive risk factors for using illicit drugs. Conclusions: This study shows that the age of using psychoactive drug has decreased in TRNC and it even exists among primary school students like all over the world. This study proves that prevention studies for psychoactive drug use for children need to be put into practice as soon as possible.
Keywords: Prevalence, Psychoactive Drugs, Risk Factors, Primary School Students
Because of high rates of heavy drinking and dating violence (psychological or physical aggression toward a dating partner) among college men, we examined whether emotion regulation difficulties moderated the association between heavy drinking and dating violence perpetration. One hundred and fifty-eight men were recruited from a large northwestern U.S. university between April 2014 and August 2014. Participants completed an online survey that assessed their emotion regulation difficulties as well as their past year history of heavy episodic drinking (HED; consuming 5+ drinks in 2 hr) and dating violence perpetration. Generalized linear models revealed that the positive association between HED and dating violence perpetration was stronger for men with greater impulse control difficulties and for those who reported limited access to emotion regulation strategies. In addition to continued efforts to reduce heavy drinking among college men, interventions targeting emotion regulation difficulties should be incorporated into standard dating violence intervention and prevention efforts to further reduce the likelihood of dating violence perpetration in this population.
Objective:
Marijuana (MJ) use is common. Research shows risks for psychiatric illnesses, including major depressive disorder (MDD) and cognitive deficits with MJ use, particularly early-onset use. We investigated cognitive function, functional connectivity, and genetic risk with MDD alone and combined with MJ use, and differences between early-vs. late-onset/non-MJ use in youth.
Method:
A total of 74 youth in four groups were studied: healthy control, MDD, frequent MJ use and current/past MDD plus frequent MJ use. Psychiatric symptoms, cognitive performance and demographics were measured. Default mode network (DMN) brain connectivity was determined. Risk alleles in six genes of interest were evaluated.
Results:
DMN differences among groups in reward-processing and motor control regions were found; the effects of MJ use and MDD were distinct. Early-onset MJ use was associated with lower IQ and hyperconnectivity within areas of the DMN. Early-onset MJ use was associated with the BDNF risk allele.
Conclusions:
Cognitive deficits linked with early-onset MJ use were present within several years after MJ use began and may result from, predispose to, or share a common cause with early-onset MJ use. The DMN was affected by MDD, MJ and their combination, as well as by early-onset MJ use. BDNF carrier state may predispose to early-onset MJ use.
Objective:
There has been ample research on college student risks and consequences related to 21st Birthday Drinking. To date, no studies we are aware of have examined how 21st birthday drinking impacts subsequent drinking and related consequences. This study evaluates the effect of a single night of drinking on peak drinking, heavy drinking, and negative consequences over 12months following the event. Furthermore, we examine if typical drinking behavior prior to 21st birthday moderates the relationship between the event drinking and subsequent use.
Method:
Participants included 599 college students (46% male) who intended to consume at least five/four drinks (men/women respectively) on their 21st birthday. Screening and baseline assessments were completed approximately four weeks before turning 21. A follow-up assessment was completed approximately one week after students' birthdays and every 3months for one year thereafter.
Results:
Those who drank more on their 21st birthday, also reported higher peak consumption, increased likelihood of consequences, and increased number of consequences throughout the year. Additionally, baseline peak drinking moderated the relationship such that those who drank less at peak occasion prior to turning 21 showed the strongest effects of 21st BD drinking on subsequent consumption.
Conclusions:
21st BD drinking could impact subsequent choices and problems related to alcohol. Interventions are warranted and implications discussed.
This study used national multicohort panel data from the Monitoring the Future study (N = 25,536 from senior year classes 1977–1997 followed up to the age of 35 years in 1994–2014) to examine how early midlife (age 35 years) alcohol use disorder (AUD) and cannabis use disorder (CUD) are associated with adolescent and adult sociodemographics and health and well-being risk factors. Survey items adapted from DSM-5 diagnostic criteria were used to identify individuals who (a) showed symptoms consistent with criteria for AUD or CUD at age 35 years, (b) used the substance without qualifying for a disorder (nondisordered users), and (c) abstained from using alcohol or marijuana during the past five years. At age 35 years, the estimated prevalence of past five-year AUD was 28.0%, and that of CUD was 6.1%. Multinomial logistic regressions were used to identify variations in the relative risk of disorder symptoms as a function of sociodemographic characteristics, age 18 educational and social indices and substance use, and age 35 health and satisfaction indices and substance use. In the full models, age 18 binge drinking and marijuana use were found to be among the strongest predictors of age 35 AUD and CUD, respectively. Among age 35 health and well-being indicators, lower overall health, more frequent cognitive difficulties, and lower satisfaction with spouse/partner were consistently associated with greater risks of AUD and CUD. Some evidence was found for a J-shaped association between age 35 AUD or CUD status and health and well-being indices, such that nondisordered users were sometimes better off than both abstainers and those experiencing disorder. Finally, nondisordered cannabis use, but not CUD, was found to be more common in more recent cohorts. Implications are discussed regarding the importance of placing early midlife substance use disorder within the context of both adolescent substance use and adult health and well-being.
Children and families face unprecedented challenges to their health, positive development, and—most basically—survival. They are confronted by problems of poor nutrition, drug and alcohol abuse, unsafe sex, violence, school failure, under-achievement, school dropout, crime, teenage pregnancy and parenting, and lack of job preparedness (Carnegie Corporation of New York, 1995; Dryfoos, 1990; Johnston, O’Malley, & Bachman, 1996; United States Department of Health and Human Services, 1996). In addition, there are challenges to their health (e.g., lack of immunizations, inadequate screening for disabilities, insufficient prenatal care, and lack of sufficient infant and childhood medical services) (Hamburg, 1992; Huston, 1991). Moreover, one-fifth of our nation’s youth are poor and face the sequelae of persistent and pervasive poverty (Center for the Study of Social Policy, 1995; Huston, 1991; Huston, McLoyd, & García Coll, 1994; Schorr, 1988, 1997). Feelings of despair and hopelessness may often pervade the lives of youth whose parents have lived in poverty and see themselves as having little opportunity to do better, that is, to have a life marked by societal respect, achievement, and opportunity (Lerner, 1993b, 1995; McKinney, Abrams, Terry, & Lemer, 1994; Schorr, 1988, 1997).
Previous research has demonstrated that White college students are more likely to drink alcohol at a greater frequency and quantity compared to their African American counterparts. Examining race-related factors that structure alcohol use among college students remains an important area of research. In this study, we specifically examine perceived discrimination and its association with both heavy episodic drinking (HED) and alcohol abstinence among college students. Items that measured perceived racial discrimination in alcohol use contexts and demographic characteristics were used as independent and control variables. African American students were more likely to abstain from alcohol and less likely to engage in HED compared to their White counterparts. Results also suggest that students who believe their drinking will solicit race-based police bias have lower odds of engaging in HED and greater odds of alcohol abstention. We conclude that unsolicited policing, experienced by African Americans generally, and White Americans on campuses, explains effect sizes.
Transitioning from high school to college may portend negative health outcomes, including hazardous drinking. Rural communities experience higher rates of hazardous drinking relative to urban communities. It is unknown whether students who move from rural communities to urban university settings experience greater alcohol problems than students from urban communities. This study evaluated alcohol consumption and alcohol problems among urban and rural undergraduates, including the influence of ethnicity. Undergraduate students (n 298) in Alaska completed self-report measures of alcohol consumption and alcohol problems. Mean group differences were evaluated across outcome measures. Rurality and ethnicity were evaluated as moderators of the association between alcohol consumption and alcohol problems. Approximately half of urban and rural students met criteria for hazardous drinking. Rural students had higher mean scores on measures of alcohol dependence and alcohol consequences. Moderation analyses revealed a significant rurality by alcohol consumption interaction with regard to alcohol consequences, such that rural students had greater alcohol consequences at low levels of consumption. There also was a significant rurality by ethnicity by alcohol consumption interaction to predict symptoms of alcohol dependence, such that urban Alaska Native students had greater symptoms of alcohol dependence at high levels of alcohol consumption relative to rural Alaska Native students. Although mean comparisons demonstrated greater alcohol consequences and symptoms of alcohol dependence among students from rural communities in Alaska overall, analysis of significant interactions revealed unique patterns of risk among rural, urban, Alaska Native, and non-Alaska Native student across levels of alcohol consumption. Implications for researchers and clinicians are discussed.
The present study examined the effects of drinking intentions (DI) on alcohol expectancies (AE) and drink refusal self-efficacy (DRSE) in regard to alcohol consumption among heavy drinking undergraduates. Research shows that DRSE buffers against drinking (Young, Hasking, Oei, & Loveday, 2007) and interacts with AE to predict alcohol consumption (Oei & Burrow, 2000). Studies further show that DI is predicted by DRSE (Norman, 2011) and AE (Fleming, Thorson, & Atkin, 2004). However, additional research is needed to understand DI's influence on both DRSE and AE among heavy college drinkers. This research included 344 heavy drinking college students (mean age = 23.06 years, SD = 5.61, 74.71% female) from a large southern university who completed study material as part of a larger intervention. Findings showed that DI, DRSE, and AE interacted with respect to heavy drinking such that DRSE was negatively associated with alcohol consumption, particularly among those low in positive AE and high in negative AE. This relationship was stronger among individuals low in DI relative to those high in DI. DI seems to be an important factor influencing heavy drinking among undergraduate students. Present findings further support DI's associations with heavy drinking, regardless of an individual's DRSE or AE. Implications of this research suggest that it may be beneficial for interventions to target specific aspects of AE, including anxious drinking.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.