Young Adult Drug Use Research Articles

Consequences of adolescent drug use and personality factors on adult drug use.

This study examined the stability of adolescent drug use into young adulthood and explored the possible influence of personality on adolescent and adult drug use. Participants in this longitudinal study (N = 640) completed questionnaires which assessed multiple indicators for latent constructs of tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, and hard drugs, and also for the personality constructs of Socialization. In addition, the effects of obedience and extraversion were examined. Results showed that a general drug use factor in adolescence significantly predicted young adult drug use. A particular effect of adolescent obedience on adult drug use was noted. Within adolescence, obedience, extraversion, and the construct of Socialization were significant predictors of drug use. Early onset of smoking predicted adolescent drug use. The implications of these findings for early drug use education and intervention are discussed. Additional analysis explored the possibility of treating obedience as another indicator of Socialization. This model could not provide as good a fit as the original model. The measure of obedience acted as a better predictor of drug use than an overall factor of Socialization. Gender differences are discussed.

An 8-year study of multiple influences on drug use and drug use consequences.

Multiple long-term influences on young adult drug use and abuse were tested within an interactionist perspective using latent-variable causal models. Intrapersonal influences included early drug use and social conformity. Proximal interpersonal influences were captured by perceived peer drug use, perceived adult drug use, and family disruption. More distal influences included perceptions of community approval or disapproval for drug use. Outcome measures included not only use of drugs but also disruptive drug use (getting high at work or school) and self-admitted problems with drugs. Data were obtained from 654 participants at three equally spaced time points during an 8-year longitudinal study that began when the subjects were in junior high school. Confirmatory factor analyses were used to test the adequacy of the hypothesized measurement model. Subsequently, a structural equation, or path model, was used to examine the across-time relations among the latent and manifest variables. Stability effects were found for all repeatedly measured latent variables across the 4-year spans. Social conformity strongly influenced other latent variables across time. Early drug use and perceived adult drug use were prominent predictors of young adult drug use, whereas prior drug use predicted disruptive drug use and a lack of social conformity predicted problems with drug use. Early adult alcohol use predicted later disruptive drug use and problems with drug use. Perceived adult drug use generally influenced later alcohol use, whereas peer drug use influenced later cannabis and hard-drug use. Implications for prevention and treatment using a multicausal interactionist perspective are discussed.

Drug use, educational aspirations, and work force involvement: the transition from adolescence to young adulthood.

The impact of high school drug use and academic potential on high school outcome (graduate or dropout) and young adult work force involvement, college involvement, and educational aspirations was examined. Frequency of drug use, grade point average, and educational plans were assessed for 479 adolescents while in high school. Four years later this same group of individuals, now in their early 20s, reported their current level of drug use, present life involvement on a variety of measures, and whether they had ever graduated from high school. Results indicate that high school graduation is predicted from a lack of cigarette and hard drug use and the presence of high academic aspirations. Using latent variable causal models, it was found that high school Academic Potential and Drug Use were significantly correlated in a negative direction. Across-time analyses indicate that high school Academic Potential significantly predicted young adult Educational Aspirations, College Involvement, and college attendance. High school Drug Use significantly predicted young adult Drug Use, a lack of College Involvement, and increased Work Force Involvement. These results do not support a psychogenic hypothesis of drug use and academic potential but rather confirm an impaired abilities or general deviance interpretation.

Alcohol and drug use in young adults: Selected findings in a longitudinal study.

Alcohol and drug use in young adults: Selected findings in a longitudinal study.

Alcohol and drug use in young adults: Selected findings in a longitudinal study.

Alcohol and drug use in young adults: Selected findings in a longitudinal study.

A multivariate social-psychological approach to the prediction of psychoactive drug use in young adults.

This research develops and tests a comprehensive social-psychological model which is capable of predicting individual differences in psychoactive drug use. A questionnaire assessing drug use, opportunities for goal attainment, normative constraints against deviance, perceived opportunities for drug use, attitudinal tolerance of deviance, and expectations about the consequences of drug use was administered to two separate subject populations: a "College Sample" and a "Street Sample.". Consistent with predictions, the more extensive an individual's drug use: (1) the less the participation in prosocial groups, (2) the greater the perceived opportunities for drug use, (3) the more time spent using drugs with friends, (4) the greater the tolerance of deviance, and (5) the more positive the expectations about drug use. Results are discussed in terms of the utility of the model for the prediction of patterns of drug use and the need for expanding the schema in future research to include measures of socialization practices.

Daydreaming, drug and alcohol use in college students: A factor analytic study

Abstract This investigation, one of a series examining patterns of drug and alcohol use or non-use in young adults, explored personality and daydreaming patterns of 579 male and female college students by means of multivariate analyses and factor analysis. Students from a Northeastern and border state rural college filled out surveys of drug and alcohol use and also were administered the Jackson Personality Research Form, the Singer-Antrobus Imaginal Processes Inventory, the Rotter Locus of Control Scale, and the Zuckerman Sensation-Seeking Scales. Data indicated patterns of widespread but moderate drug and alcohol use even in the rural college group. Daydreaming patterns replicated those of earlier studies but were not especially related to drug or alcohol indulgence.

Narcotics and drug abuse : by Samuel F. Levine. The W.H. Anderson Company (Cincinnati, Ohio), 1973, 438 pp., paperback.

Prescription drug misuse (PDM) rates are highest in adolescents and young adults. Little research in these high-risk groups has examined PDM differences by educational status or attainment. This investigation attempted to further our understanding of adolescent and young adult prescription drug use and misuse through examining PDM type (i.e., nonmedical misuse, medical misuse and mixed misuse) and substance use disorder (SUD) symptoms from PDM by educational status/attainment.Data were from the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, with 13,585 adolescent and 14,553 young adult respondents. Participants were categorized by educational status separately in adolescents and young adults. Outcomes were rates of past-year prescription drug use, PDM, PDM type, and SUD symptoms, with analyses performed separately by age group and for opioids, stimulants and sedatives/tranquilizers. Analyses used logistic regression and controlled for age, race/ethnicity and sex.In adolescents and across medication classes, the highest rates of any use, PDM, medical misuse, nonmedical misuse and presence of two or more SUD symptoms were seen in those with poor school adjustment or not in school. In young adults, opioid-PDM and related outcomes were more prevalent in those not in school, especially high school dropouts. For stimulants, rates were highest in full-time college students and college graduates.These results further suggest the importance of assessing educational status in adolescent and educational attainment in young adult PDM investigations. Adolescents poorly engaged in school or not in school appear especially in need of interventions to limit PDM and associated SUD symptoms.

NARCOTICS ADDICTION IN PHYSICIANS.

NARCOTICS ADDICTION IN PHYSICIANS.