Abstract Fifty percent of adolescents have tried an illicit drug and 70% have tried alcohol by the end of high school, with even higher rates among multiracial youth. Ethnic identity is a protective ...factor against substance use for minority groups. However, little is known about the mechanisms that facilitate its protective effects, and even less is known about this relationship for multiracial youth. The purpose of the present study was to examine the protective effect of ethnic identity on substance use and to determine whether this relationship operated indirectly through self-esteem, a strong predictor of substance use for among adolescent populations. Participants included 468 multiracial youth in grades six through 12 (53% female). The results found that ethnic identity was indeed related to substance use, partially through changes in self-esteem. Findings from this study contribute to our understanding and development of models of risk and protection for an understudied population.
•Concurrent substance use made up 40% of past-month use among U.S. adolescents.•Prevalence rates of substance-use typologies vary by race/ethnicity and sex.•Female adolescent users were most likely ...to be alcohol only users.•Marijuana only users were disproportionately African American and Hispanic.•African American youth are at high risk for concurrent alcohol and marijuana use.
Substance use during adolescence is a public health concern due to associated physical and behavioral health consequences. Such consequences are amplified among concurrent substance users. Although sex and racial/ethnic differences in single-substance use have been observed, the current literature is inconclusive as to whether differences exist in the prevalence of concurrent use. The current study used data from the 2011–2014 National Survey on Drug Use and Health to examine typologies (single and concurrent patterns) of alcohol, marijuana, and cigarette use among current adolescent users age 12–18 by sex and race/ethnicity. Participants were 14,667 White, Hispanic, African American, Asian, and Native American adolescents. The most common typology was alcohol only, followed by concurrent use of alcohol and marijuana. Weighted prevalence estimates indicated that adolescent females were more likely to be current users of alcohol only, whereas male adolescents were more likely to belong to all other typologies. Compared to Whites, racial/ethnic minorities had larger proportions of marijuana only users and were generally less likely than or equally likely to be concurrent users. One exception was for African American adolescents, who were more likely to be alcohol and marijuana users than their White counterparts. Results suggest that concurrent substance use is common among U.S. adolescents, making up over 40% of past-month use, but typologies of use vary by sex and race/ethnicity. Preventive interventions should consider all typologies of use rather than only single substance exposures and address patterns of use that are most pertinent to adolescents based on sex and race/ethnicity.
Electronic cigarette use ("vaping") has surged in the United States since the mid-2010s. From 2011 to 2018, current e-cigarette use among high school students escalated from 1.5% to 20.8% (∼3.05 ...million youths),
countering downward trends in combustible nicotine product use (21.8% in 2011 to 13.9% in 2018).
Although preventing the initial uptake of vaping is crucial, for the millions of adolescents who have taken up this behavior-many of whom express interest in quitting (eg, 44.5% of current, adolescent non-light e-cigarette users in one US national representative sample)
-it is critically important to help them quit vaping so as to curtail future substance use disorders and other health consequences. Here, we discuss several challenges around adolescent vaping treatment, and highlight research areas in urgent need of attention.
The authors argue for a significant shift in how clinical psychology researchers conduct construct validation and theory validation tests. They argue that sound theory and validation tests can best ...be conducted on measures of unidimensional or homogeneous constructs. Hierarchical organizations of such constructs are useful descriptively and theoretically, but higher order composites do not refer to definable psychological processes. Application of this perspective to the approach of the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
to describing psychopathology calls into doubt the traditional use of the syndromal approach, in which single scores reflect the presence of multidimensional disorders. For many forms of psychological dysfunction, this approach does not appear optimal and may need to be discarded. The authors note that their perspective represents a straightforward application of existing psychometric theory, they demonstrate the practical value of adopting this perspective, and they provide evidence that this shift is already under way among clinical researchers. Description in terms of homogeneous dimensions provides improved validity, utility, and parsimony. In contrast, the use of composite diagnoses can retard scientific progress and hamper clinicians' efforts to understand and treat dysfunction.
Peer victimization in school is common, with emerging literature suggesting that it may also increase risk for substance abuse. Yet, little is known about the underlying mechanisms within this risk ...pathway. The objective of this study is to use a prospective 3-wave design to examine the mediating role of depressive symptomatology on the relationship between peer victimization and substance use, as well as examine if the pathway varies based on gender.
801 youth between 6th and 12th grade completed surveys across three years, which included measures on school peer victimization, depression symptomatology and substance use. Models tested the mediational pathway between victimization, depressive symptoms, and substance use. Models were stratified by gender.
Controlling for grade and the effect of each variable across waves, a significant indirect effect of peer victimization on substance use through depressive symptoms was found for females, with a non-significant indirect effect for males.
Results suggest that female youth who are victimized by peers engage in substance use behaviors, at least in part, due to increases in depressive symptoms. Given its effect on depression, female victims may therefore benefit from coping skills training that targets emotion regulation and distress tolerance skills in order to combat increased risk for substance use behaviors as a coping response to their victimization. Further research is warranted to better understand the risk pathway for male youth who also experience peer victimization.
•Peer victimization predicted later depressive symptoms.•Peer victimization predicted later substance use through depression for females.•No indirect effect was found for male youth.
Abstract Introduction The purpose of the study was to better understand early risk for positive smoking expectancies, which have been shown to be consistent predictors of smoking initiation among ...youth. Two affect-based risk factors—negative urgency and emotion dysregulation—associated with smoking behaviors among youth, were examined for unique and interactive effects on positive smoking expectancies among substance-naïve youth. Methods Participants were 61 10–14-year-old children with virtually no drug use (less than 5 substance use incidents across the lifetime), who were drawn from the community. Results Both negative urgency and emotion dysregulation were significantly associated with positive social facilitation smoking expectancies. Further, negative urgency was significantly related to positive social facilitation smoking expectancies at higher levels of emotion dysregulation ( b = .09, p = .001). Conclusion The findings provide evidence that both emotion dysregulation and negative urgency are positively associated with positive social-related smoking expectancies among a sample of 10–14-year-olds. Children who are emotionally dysregulated and who act rashly in response to negative emotions appear more likely to endorse beliefs regarding the socially enhancing effects of smoking, suggesting that these youth may be at high risk for smoking initiation.
The aim of this investigation was to test hypothesized reverse prospective relationships between alcohol consumption and depressive symptomatology as a function of race among youth.
In a two-wave ...prospective study, 328 European American, 328 African American, and 144 Hispanic American youth were studied at the end of fifth grade (last year of elementary school) and the end of sixth grade (first year of middle school).
A positive correlation was observed between alcohol consumption and depressive symptoms among all youth. However, the predictive relationship differed based on race. For European American and Hispanic American youth, depressive symptom levels at the end of elementary school predicted alcohol consumption at the end of the first year of middle school, but the converse relationship was not observed. For African American youth, the opposite pattern was found. Alcohol consumption at the end of elementary school predicted depressive symptom levels at the end of the first year of middle school, and the converse relationship was not observed.
These findings suggest the possibility that etiological relationships between depression and alcohol use vary by race, thus highlighting the importance of considering race when studying the risk process.
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