Substance use and youth violence. A study among 6th to 10th grade Israeli school children

Abstract

This study examined the co-morbidity of substance use and violence among a representative sample of 8,394 6th-10th grade Israeli students. A representative national self report sample of 8,394 students in 6th through 10th grade. Measures included smoking, alcohol consumption, and illicit drug use, predicting involvement in bullying, injury during a fight and weapon-carrying in the past 30 days. We found across all grades, genders and ethnicities, daily smoking, use of hard drugs, history of drunkenness and binge drinking were the best predictors of violent behavior. Involvement in such behaviors put girls in higher risk for violent behaviors compared with boys. We concluded that use of substances immensely increased the odds of involvement in violent behavior, and this association was extremely strong for Arab girls. The study suggested that although girls were less frequently involved in substance use, the girls who did were at much higher risk for involvement in youth violence.