ELSA 2016 Cohort: Alcohol, Tobacco, and Marijuana Use and Their Association with Age of Drug Use Onset, Risk Perception, and Social Norms in Argentinean College Freshmen.

Angelina Pilatti,Ricardo M Pautassi,Jennifer P Read

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01452

Abstract

The transition from high school to college is a high-risk stage for the initiation and escalation of substance use. Substance use and its associated risk factors have been thoroughly described in developed countries, such as the United States, but largely neglected in Argentina, a South American country with patterns of a collectivist culture. The present cross-sectional study describes the occurrence of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use and the association between these behaviors and the age of onset of substance use and cognitive (i.e., risk perception) and social (i.e., prescriptive) variables in a large sample of Argentinean college freshmen (n = 4083, 40.1% men; mean age = 19.39 ± 2.18 years). The response rate across courses was ≥90% and was similarly distributed across sex. Participants completed a survey that measured substance use (alcohol [with a focus on heavy drinking and binge drinking behaviors], tobacco, and marijuana), age of onset of the use of each substance, perceived risk associated with various substance use behaviors, prescriptive norms associated with substance use, and descriptive norms for alcohol use (AU). The results indicated that AU is nearly normative (90.4 and 80.3% with last year and last month use, respectively) in this population, and heavy drinking is highly prevalent (68.6 and 54.9% with heavy episodic and binge drinking, respectively), especially among those with an early drinking onset (97.8 and 93.6% with last year and last month use and 87.8 and 76.3% with heavy episodic and binge drinking, respectively). The last-year occurrence of tobacco and marijuana use was 36 and 28%, respectively. Early substance use was associated with the greater use of that specific substance. The students overestimated their same-sex friend’s AU, and women overestimated the level of AU of their best male friend. At the multivariate level, all of the predictors, with the exception of the parents’ prescriptive norms, significantly explained the frequency of marijuana and tobacco use and frequency of hazardous drinking. Overall, despite important cultural and contextual differences between Argentina and the United States, our findings suggest that certain vulnerability factors have a similar influence across these cultural contexts.

Highlights

Several studies indicate a progressive, age-related increase in the consumption of psychoactive substances among Argentinian youth
Other Argentinian studies indicated that one-third of college students reported lifetime marijuana use (Pilatti et al, 2014), whereas the last-year occurrence of marijuana use varied between 18% in freshmen (Vera et al, 2015) and 30% in all 5-year college students (Pilatti et al, 2014)
Last-year marijuana use rose to 59% among young adults (Pilatti et al, 2015), the last-month occurrence of tobacco use was fairly similar in college students (33%; Pilatti et al, 2014) and older youth (39.5%; Pilatti et al, 2015)

Summary

Introduction

Several studies indicate a progressive, age-related increase in the consumption of psychoactive substances among Argentinian youth. Between 60% and 71% of college students (Vera et al, 2015; Pilatti et al, 2016a,b) engaged in binge drinking episodes (i.e., the consumption of ≥56 and 70 g of pure alcohol in ≤2 h for women and men, respectively; NIAAA, 2004). Substance use at these ages can interfere with normal brain development (Squeglia et al, 2009; Goriounova and Mansvelder, 2012) and hinder the acquisition of social and educational skills that are needed to achieve independence in adulthood (Masten et al, 2009)

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