Abstract This review examines the evidence for longitudinal predictors of substance use and abuse in emerging adulthood. Nationally representative data from the 2007 National Survey on Drug use and ...Health suggest that many substance use problems reach their peak prevalence during emerging adulthood (usually defined as the period from age 18 to age 26). This stage of development is characterized by rapid transitions into new social contexts that involve greater freedom and less social control than experienced during adolescence. Concurrent with this newfound independence is an increase in rates of substance use and abuse. Understanding the risk and protective factors associated with emerging adult substance use problems is an important step in developing interventions targeting those problems. While multiple reviews have examined risk and protective factors for substance use during adolescence, and many of these earlier predictors may predict emerging adult substance use, few studies have focused primarily on the emerging adult outcomes examining predictors from both adolescence and emerging adulthood. This review used the databases PubMed and PsycInfo to identify articles pertaining to longitudinal predictors of substance use problems in emerging adulthood, building from the conceptual framework presented in a review on risk and protective factors for adolescent substance abuse by Hawkins and colleagues (Hawkins, Catalano, & Miller, 1992). Predictors identified as predictors of substance use in adolescence, sometimes decreased in strength and in one case reversed direction. Unique predictors in emerging adulthood were also identified. Implications for prevention science during adolescence and emerging adulthood are discussed as well as suggestions for future research.
The burden of morbidity and mortality from non-communicable disease has risen worldwide and is accelerating in low-income and middle-income countries, whereas the burden from infectious diseases has ...declined. Since this transition, the prevention of non-communicable disease as well as communicable disease causes of adolescent mortality has risen in importance. Problem behaviours that increase the short-term or long-term likelihood of morbidity and mortality, including alcohol, tobacco, and other drug misuse, mental health problems, unsafe sex, risky and unsafe driving, and violence are largely preventable. In the past 30 years new discoveries have led to prevention science being established as a discipline designed to mitigate these problem behaviours. Longitudinal studies have provided an understanding of risk and protective factors across the life course for many of these problem behaviours. Risks cluster across development to produce early accumulation of risk in childhood and more pervasive risk in adolescence. This understanding has led to the construction of developmentally appropriate prevention policies and programmes that have shown short-term and long-term reductions in these adolescent problem behaviours. We describe the principles of prevention science, provide examples of efficacious preventive interventions, describe challenges and potential solutions to take efficacious prevention policies and programmes to scale, and conclude with recommendations to reduce the burden of adolescent mortality and morbidity worldwide through preventive intervention.
The latest in a series of three consensus reports from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), Fostering Healthy Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Health in Children ...and Youth: A National Agenda (2019), urges a broad-based effort to improve MEB health for children and youth, organized under the Decade of the Child 1 . Similar to the past NASEM reports on this topic, this one explores the predictors of and influences behind MEB outcomes, as well as a variety of strategies for reducing risk, enhancing protection, and promoting healthy MEB development. In addition, this report highlights the importance of adolescence in the promotion of lifetime MEB health. Because most MEB disorders emerge by age 24 years, adolescence and young adulthood are crucial times for effective interventions to prevent risks and promote positive development. Ensuring healthy MEB development in adolescents not only decreases lifetime risk for MEB disorders but also serves as a protective factor for future generations.
This supplement includes a broad tour de force of the prevalence of adolescent behavioral health problems with attention to risk and protection when available and the effectiveness of prevention and ...promotion in cases when evidence exists from controlled trials. Hong Kong has one of the highest GDP's per capita in the world, in the top 15 globally depending on the source. The prevalence of many of the behavioral health problems described in this supplement are quite low compared with other developed nations, including tobacco, drugs, and risky sexual activity, with comparable or slightly higher rates of bullying, Internet addiction, and gambling. Mental health problems are slightly or much lower than other developed nations depending on the study and the nation. However, despite this generally good news, the articles in this supplement suggest that several of these behavioral health problems have gotten worse over time.
This commentary on the special issue of Prevention Science, “Toward a Lifespan Prevention Science: A Focus on Middle and Late Adulthood” reviews the studies included in the issue, compares findings, ...and makes recommendations for future directions in this emerging field. Articles in this issue addressed a number of the key elements of prevention science, including identifying proximal and distal risk and protective factors that play a role in middle and late adult health and well-being, providing preliminary evidence for a preventive intervention to moderate stress reactivity, and proposing a theoretical approach to preventing substance misuse across the lifespan. Our commentary centers around three critical areas for mid and later life prevention science: the importance of theory building, a focus on alcohol and its role in midlife health, and health disparities. Each of the articles in this issue touched on at least one of these areas. We conclude that a focus on prevention in mid and later life has strong potential, and further research is needed.
There is broad agreement that neighborhood contexts are important for adolescent development, but there is less consensus about their association with adolescent smoking and alcohol use. Few studies ...have examined associations between neighborhood socioeconomic contexts and smoking and alcohol use while also accounting for differences in family and peer risk factors for substance use. Data drawn from the Seattle Social Development Project (
N
= 808), a gender-balanced (female = 49%), multiethnic, theory-driven longitudinal study originating in Seattle, WA, were used to estimate trajectories of smoking and alcohol use from 5th to 9th grade. Time-varying measures of neighborhood socioeconomic, family, and peer factors were associated with smoking and alcohol use at each wave after accounting for average growth in smoking and alcohol use over time and demographic differences. Results indicated that living in more socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods, lower family income, lower family general functioning, more permissive family smoking environments, and affiliation with deviant peers were independently associated with increased smoking. Lower family functioning, more permissive family alcohol use environments, and deviant peers were independently associated with increased alcohol use. The effect of neighborhood disadvantage on smoking was mediated by family income and deviant peers while the effect of neighborhood disadvantage on alcohol use was mediated by deviant peers alone. Family functioning and family substance use did not mediate associations between neighborhood disadvantage and smoking or alcohol use. The results highlight the importance of neighborhood, family, and peer factors in early adolescent smoking and alcohol use. Future studies should examine the unique association of neighborhood disadvantage with adolescent smoking net of family socioeconomics, functioning, and substance use, as well as peer affiliations. Better understanding of the role of contextual factors in early adolescent smoking and alcohol use can help bolster efforts to prevent both short and long harms from substance use.
Due to the significant consequences of adolescent substance use behaviors, researchers have increasingly focused on prevention approaches. The field of prevention science is based on the ...identification of predictors of problem behaviors, and the development and testing of prevention programs that seek to change these predictors. As the field of prevention science moves forward, there are many opportunities for growth, including the integration of prevention programs into service systems and primary care, an expansion of program adaptations to fit the needs of local populations, and a greater emphasis on the development of programs targeted at young adult populations.
Abstract Purpose Cyberbullying perpetration (using communication technology to engage in bullying) is a recent phenomenon that has generated much concern. There are few prospective longitudinal ...studies of cyberbullying. The current article examines the individual, peer, family, and school risk factors for both cyber and traditional bullying (the latter is bullying that does not use technology) in adolescents. Methods This article draws on a rich data set from the International Youth Development Study, a longitudinal study of students in Victoria, Australia and Washington State, United States, which began in 2002. In this article, data from almost 700 Victorian students recruited in grade 5 are analyzed to examine grade 7 (aged 12–13 years) predictors of traditional and cyberbullying perpetration in grade 9 (aged 14–15 years). Results Fifteen per cent of students engaged in cyberbullying, 21% in traditional bullying, and 7% in both. There are similarities and important differences in the predictors of cyber and traditional bullying. In the fully adjusted model, only prior engagement in relational aggression (a covert form of bullying, such as spreading rumors about another student) predicted cyberbullying perpetration. For traditional bullying, previous relational aggression was also predictive, as was having been a victim and perpetrator of traditional bullying, family conflict, and academic failure. Conclusions The use of evidence-based bullying prevention programs is supported to reduce experiences of all forms of bullying perpetration (cyber, traditional, and relational aggression). In addition, for traditional bullying perpetration, addressing family conflict and student academic support are also important.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND
This article examines the effect of early adolescent alcohol use on mid‐adolescent school suspension, truancy, commitment, and academic failure in Washington State, United States, ...and Victoria, Australia. Also of interest was whether associations remain after statistically controlling for other factors known to predict school outcomes.
METHODS
State‐representative student samples were surveyed in 2002 (grade 7; N = 1858) and followed up annually to 2004 (grade 9) in both sites. Students completed a modified version of the Communities That Care survey to report alcohol use, school outcomes, and risk and protective factors. Response rates were above 74% and retention rates exceeded 98% in both places.
RESULTS
Controlling for grade 7 risk factors, grade 7 current alcohol use, and heavy episodic drinking were associated with grade 8 school suspension. Grade 7 current and frequent alcohol use and heavy episodic drinking were linked to grade 9 truancy. In fully adjusted analyses, associations between early alcohol use and academic failure and low school commitment did not remain.
CONCLUSIONS
Although alcohol use is one factor influencing school performance and connection, there are other risk factors that need to be targeted to improve school outcomes.
The burden of morbidity and mortality from non-communicable disease has risen worldwide and is accelerating in low-income and middle-income countries, whereas the burden from infectious diseases has ...declined. Since this transition, the prevention of non-communicable disease as well as communicable disease causes of adolescent mortality has risen in importance. Problem behaviours that increase the short-term or long-term likelihood of morbidity and mortality, including alcohol, tobacco, and other drug misuse, mental health problems, unsafe sex, risky and unsafe driving, and violence are largely preventable. In the past 30 years new discoveries have led to prevention science being established as a discipline designed to mitigate these problem behaviours. Longitudinal studies have provided an understanding of risk and protective factors across the life course for many of these problem behaviours. Risks cluster across development to produce early accumulation of risk in childhood and more pervasive risk in adolescence. This understanding has led to the construction of developmentally appropriate prevention policies and programmes that have shown short-term and long-term reductions in these adolescent problem behaviours. We describe the principles of prevention science, provide examples of effi cacious preventive interventions, describe challenges and potential solutions to take effi cacious prevention policies and programmes to scale, and conclude with recommendations to reduce the burden of adolescent mortality and morbidity worldwide through preventive intervention. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
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