Predictors Of 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.

Pattern of drug use in a general population--prevalence and predicting factors: the Tromsø study.

The aims of this study were to examine the prevalence of drug use, and how morbidity, use of health services, self-evaluated health, demographic pattern and lifestyle characteristics influence drug use in a general population. The study was carried out in the municipality of Tromsø, Norway. A sample of those aged 12-61 years was invited to the health survey, and 21,647 (75%) participated. The proportion of drug users increased with age in both sexes (P < 0.0001); from 25% to 52% of women and from 18% to 38% of men. Drug use dependent mainly on chronic diseases (odds ratio [OR] = 2.5 [women], OR = 3.5 [men]) and physical distress, especially symptoms of pain (OR = 2.3 [women], OR = 2.2 [men]). Number of visits to the doctor (OR = 2.4 [women], OR = 3.2 [men]) and attitude to own health (OR = 1.9 [women], OR = 1.7 [men]) were also significant predictors for drug use. Mental distress, lifestyle and demographic factors were of marginal importance (OR < 1.3). Chronic diseases and visits to the doctor were the only predictors showing significant gender difference. Drug use increased with age and was twice as common in women as in men (OR = 2.0). After adjustment for differences in morbidity, visits to the doctor, and other factors the gender difference was significantly reduced (OR = 1.4). Higher drug use in women was attributed to women's higher level of physical distress (especially headache), higher numbers of visits to the doctor, and a higher proportion of reported chronic diseases (especially eczema, migraine) and depression compared with men.

Peer drug associations and emotional restraint: Causes or consequences of adolescents' drug use?

A 3-wave longitudinal design was used to examine the relationships among emotional restraint, peer drug associations, and gateway drug use in a sample of 1,256 middle school students. Structural equation modeling was used to compare 3 models: (a) One model viewed drug use as a consequence of emotional restraint and peer variables; (b) 1 viewed drug use as a cause of restraint and peer variables, and (c) 1 included reciprocal effects. All 3 models fit the data fairly well. However, the reciprocal model fit the data significantly better than either of the others. Within this model, low emotional restraint was significantly related to subsequent increases in gateway drug use among boys. In contrast, peer drug models and peer pressure were not related to subsequent changes in gateway drug use. Changes in peer drug models were, however, predicted by previous levels of gateway drug use. Peer drug associations have been identified as one of the most important correlates of drug use in adolescents (Chassin, 1984; Hawkins, Lishner, Catalano, & Howard, 1986; Kandel, 1980). As such, peer variables play an important role in many models of adolescent drug use including Jessor and Jessor's (1977) problem behavior theory; the social learning model of Akers, Krohn, Lanza-Kaduce, and Radosevich (1979); and Kandel's (1980) socialization theory. Although various theories emphasize the role of peers in adolescents' drug use, the strongest position is taken by Getting and Beauvais's (1986, 1987) peer cluster theory, which states that peer variables not only dominate the prediction of drug use but mediate the effects of other variables. They argued that, whereas other psychosocial variables may create the potential for drug use, this potential is nearly always realized through interactions with peers. They contend that peers initiate youth into drugs, provide drugs, model drug-using behaviors, and shape attitudes about drugs. In a recent cross-sectional study, Swaim, Getting, and Beauvais (1989) used a model based on peer cluster theory to examine the relationships among emotional distress, peer variables, and drug use. Peer variables were hypothesized to have a direct effect on drug use; emotional distress variables including selfesteem, depression, anxiety, and blame-alienation were hy

Risk factors for drug use in rural adolescents.

This study tested the relevance of a risk factor model for predicting drug use among rural adolescents. A questionnaire battery assessing drug use and the presence/absence of twenty risk factors derived from a previous study of urban adolescents was administered to a sample of seventh graders (N = 235) in the public school system of a rural community. All but one of these risk factors were found to be significantly related to at least one category of drug use. In addition, a risk factor index based on a subset of ten risk factors was significantly associated with the prevalence and frequency of use for cigarettes, beer and wine, hard liquor, marijuana, and other drugs. These findings support the generalizability of a risk factor approach to predicting drug use, and underscore the need for increased prevention and research efforts directed at rural adolescents.

Toward a Causal Model of Drug Use

Drug use remains a serious concern in neighborhoods and at all levels of government. Formulating drug policy requires sound information regarding the indicators of drug use and its consequences. To date, efforts to integrate drug use measures as a means to predict drug use trends have been minimal. This research describes a statistical modeling procedure that attempted to demonstrate the association between drug use in the justice and health systems to determine if drug use in the criminal justice system could forecast drug use in the larger community. Results of the path analysis suggested that integration of indicators was not useful for determining future drug use due to the weak associations among variables.

Interactive and Higher-Order Effects of Social Influences on Drug Use

The study of moderators and higher-order effects of social influences on drug use has many implications for theories of health behavior. In the present study, we investigated the longitudinal predictive effects of some of the prominent moderator variables that represent forms of susceptibility toward social influence in teenage drug use. We also studied the possibility that social influence may predict drug use in nonlinear (quadratic) forms, consistent with theories proposing that threshold or decelerating effects may occur in social influences on normatively sanctioned behaviors. Results showed that several of the interactive and quadratic predictive effects were significant. The findings supported the views that certain moderator variables act as buffers, which either protect the individual from social pressures to use drugs, or make the individual more susceptible to such pressures. In addition, two of the obtained quadratic effects of social influence lent support to the application of social impact theory to drug use. Overall, our findings suggest that interactive and nonlinear approaches to social influences on drug use provide a unique and viable theoretical perspective from which to construe this problem health behavior.

Prediction of Long-Term Alcohol Use, Drug Use, and Criminality Among Inhalant Users

Predictors of drug use and other deviant behaviors were examined in a 4-year follow-up study of 110 Mexican American adolescents of low socioeconomic status admitted to a drug abuse prevention program. Results indicated that parental influences had only minor predictive power for outcomes at follow-up, while associationis with deviant peers were strongly related to alcohol and drug use as well as involvement in criminal activities. Significant relationships were also found, especially in females, between low satisfaction with school and greater severity of drug use.

Closeness and peer group influence

This study hypothesized that closeness of peer group relationships would be a critical factor in determining peer influence on substance use. The hypothesis was examined in a panel study of the effects of peer approval and behaviour on cigarette smoking, drinking and other drug use among Irish adolescents. In support of the closeness hypothesis, the influences relating to peers identified by respondents as ‘friends' were better predictors of drug use than were the corresponding factors relating to same‐aged peers, while the person identified as the ‘best friend’ seemed uniquely influential. Furthermore, there were important differences associated with maintenance of drug use as opposed to initiation, both as regards the type of friends and the mediating factors that were important. In particular, it emerged that several good friends were influential (by means of example and approval) in initiation, while the best friend had a critical role in the maintenance of drug use.

Peer vs. parental influence in substance use among hispanic and Anglo children and adolescents

The relative influence of peer and parental influence on youths' use of alcohol and other drugs is explored among 446 Anglo and Hispanic youths, ages 9-17. Current users and abstainers are similar in age and gender. Among both groups, parental influence is more profound than that of peers. However, substance users, compared to abstainers, are more influenced by peers. Level of marijuana use by youths' friends is the most reliable predictor of drug use. Youths having viable relationships with parents are less involved with drugs and less influenced by drug-oriented peers.

Differentiation of early adolescent predictors of drug use versus abuse: A developmental risk-factor model

Many psychosocial factors are associated with adolescent drug use, though most have not been tested as true predictors of drug use in prospective studies. Studies to date have also not differentiated predictors of drug use from abuse and have not addressed differential effects for specific substances. To address these concerns, we expanded the multiple risk-factor approach using 2-year longitudinal data from a sample of seventh graders. Frequencies of use for alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, cocaine, and hard drugs were assessed at Time 1 and Time 2 and used to reflect latent constructs of polydrug use. From a set of 29 risk factors, unique predictors of any substance were separated conceptually according to whether they most related to initiation/experimental or problem/heavy drug use and were then summed into two-unit weighted indexes at each time. Distribution-free structural equation models were used to accommodate the nonnormal distributions of the illicit drug use measures. The problem risk index was strongly correlated with polydrug use at Time 1 and increased polydrug use at Time 2. Several specific relationships between risk and drug use across time also were noted.

Expectancy Accessibility and the Influence of Outcome Expectancies on Adolescent Smokeless Tobacco Use

This study investigated the moderating influence of expectancy accessibility on the relation between outcome expectancies and drug use intentions. Specifically, it was hypothesized that expectancies made temporarily more accessible would predict smokeless tobacco intentions to a greater degree than would less accessible expectancies. In addition, it was anticipated that expectancies regarding positive outcomes of smokeless tobacco use would be better predictors of intention than would expectancies about negative outcomes. Results partially supported the accessibility hypothesis, but this effect occurred for positive outcome expectancies only. In addition, the anticipated prepotency of positive over negative expectancies in predicting drug use intentions was strongly supported. These findings are consistent with theories of problem behavior which differentiate between positive and negative outcome expectancies and which postulate that accessibility of expectancies plays an important role in expectancy‐behavior relations.

Racial Differences in Acceptability and Availability of Drugs and Early Initiation of Substance Use

This paper examines differences among three racial groups in exposure to three risk factors for drug use (availability of drugs, acceptability of drug use, and peer alcohol use), and the relationship of these factors to drug use initiation in a sample of preadolescent urban youths. Tobacco and alcohol initiation rates were highest among Whites, lower among Blacks, and lowest among Asian-Americans. Paralleling these differences, White youths reported the greatest access to marijuana, greatest parental tolerance of substance use, and greatest intentions to use drugs as adults. Blacks somewhat less, and Asian-Americans the least. No racial differences appear in the proportion who reported that their peers used alcohol. Marijuana availability and peer use predicted substance initiation for all three racial groups. However, intentions to use substances as an adult and perceived parental tolerance of substance use predicted drug use only for White and Asian-American youths, while the expectation of punishment for drug use predicted lower drug use only among Black youths. Implications for prevention are discussed.

Links from emotional distress to adolescent drug use: a path model.

Administered anonymous surveys asking about drug use, emotional distress, and peer drug associations to 11th and 12th grade high school students (N = 563). Emotional distress variables accounted for only 4.8% of the variance in drug use. The addition of peer drug associations as a predictor variable increased the variance accounted for to 43.4%. A path model of adolescent drug use based on peer cluster theory was tested using LISREL, and this provided a good fit with the data. As predicted, peer drug associations dominated the prediction of drug use and mediated the effect of emotional distress on drug use, with the exception of a small residual path directly from anger to drug use. The hypothesis that young people take drugs to alleviate emotional distress does not hold up well; emotional distress variables, with the exception of anger, produced only very small and indirect links to drug use.

The prediction of drug use among college students from MMPI, MCMI, and sensation seeking scales.

This study examines the ability of five self-report assessment measures to predict college students' drug use across 12 pharmacological drug categories. Subjects were 125 female and 61 male university undergraduate students. The test battery included the following instruments: the Psychopathic Deviancy (Pd) scale of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI); the MacAndrew Alcoholism scale (MAC), a special scale of the MMPI; the Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS); the Millon Alcohol Abuse Scale; and the Millon Drug Abuse Scale. Scores from these instruments were utilized in linear combinations to predict individual drug use outcomes as well as polydrug versus single drug use patterns. The drug categories included in this investigation are coffee, tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, tranquilizers, depressants, amphetamines, LSD, other hallucinogens, solvents, narcotics, and cocaine. Results demonstrate significant and meaningful relationships between predictors and drug use levels among college students. Weighted equations derived from linear discriminant function analyses were generally capable of accurately classifying subject's drug use levels across drug categories and in discriminating single drug use from polydrug use patterns. Typically, the Sensation Seeking Scale entered as the most powerful predictor of substance use and abuse.

Test of a Bonding/Association Theory of Adolescent Drug Use

A theoretical model of adolescent drug use is developed which integrates propositions derived from social control and differential association theories. The path model includes parental attachment, religious attachment, educational attachment, conventional values, and drug-using friends as precursors of drug use. For a sample of 2,626 adolescents from the southwestern United States, the model explains 34 percent of the variation in self-reported lifetime alcohol use, 27 percent in lifetime cigarette use, 42 percent in lifetime marijuana use, 26 percent in lifetime use of amphetamines and depressants, and 50 percent in overall lifetime drug use. The best single predictor of drug use is association with drug-using friends. The processes leading to involvement with drugs appear to be very similar across drug types. Adolescent drug use is widespread in America. Numerous recent authors suggest that involvement in such behavior has become a national concern, whether the substance is tobacco (Grunberg and Baum 1984; Humble et al. 1985; Lichtenstein 1982), alcohol (Barnes 1984; Pandina et al. 1984; Wechsler et al. 1984), marijuana (Hendin et al. 1981; Smith et al. 1982; Smith 1984), or other drugs (McDermott 1984; Marcos and Bahr 1985; Weidman 1983). Macdonald (1984) refers to adolescent drug use as a national disaster because of the high proportion of adolescents who use drugs and the negative consequences associated with use. By the time they are seniors in high school, over 90 percent of American adolescents have tried alcohol *Paper presented at the 1985 meeting of the Pacific Sociological Association. We acknowledge the cooperation of the schools that participated in this project, particularly the students who completed the questionnaires. We are grateful to Grant Rose and Tom Martin for computer assistance, to two anonymous referees for their suggestions, and to Norene Petersen and Brenda Johnson for clerical assistance. Address correspondence to Anastasios C. Marcos, Department of Sociology, 800 SWKT, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602.

Risk Factors for Delinquency and Illicit Drug Use from Adolescence to Young Adulthood

This study examines the interrelationships and predictors of involvement in delinquent activities and illicit drug use over a nine-year interval, from adolescence (age 15–16) to young adulthood (age 24–25) in a cohort representative of adolescents formerly enrolled in grades 10 and 11 in public secondary schools in New York State (N =1,004). Persistence of illicit drug use in this period of the life-cycle is greater than for delinquency and is higher among men than among women. Convergences and divergences in intrapersonal and interpersonal predictors of drug use and delinquency are analyzed. Adult illicit drug use is much better predicted by adolescent illicit drug use, especially among men. Among women, early drug use predicts later delinquent behavior. However, illicit drug use in the period from adolescence to early adulthood selectively predicts adult participation in one type of delinquent behavior, namely theft, among men and women, but has no effect on interpersonal aggression. Different risk factors in adolescence other than drug use predict continued delinquent involvement among men and women. In particular, depression plays an important role for women and family factors for men. Lifestyle factors subsequent to adolescence, especially failure to enter the conventional roles of adulthood, such as marriage and continuous employment, are important predictors of continued illicit drug use in adulthood but not of delinquency. Delinquency among males and illicit drug use among females appear to be subject to common etiological factors and may play similar roles in the lives of young people. Convergence between the findings and results reported by others are discussed.

Validity of questionnaires in population studies on drug use.

The concurrent validity of questionnaires in population studies on drug use was tested by comparing information from registers and interviews in two populations of young people from Gothenburg. The questionnaire items' sensitivity and specificity according to criteria and their capacity for prediction of drug use and no drug use and correct classification were calculated. Considering criteria weaknesses and other sources of errors, the validity of the questionnaire items was good. This conclusion is basic to longitudinal population studies which aim at clarifying the prognosis of drug abuse among young people.

Comment on Kemper's "Social Constructionist and Positivist Approaches to the Sociology of Emotions"

Comment on Kemper's "Social Constructionist and Positivist Approaches to the Sociology of Emotions"

Social background and attitudes towards drugs as predictors of drug use among Malaysian students

Those Malaysian secondary schoolchildren who have ever used an illicit drug do not differ significantly in terms of social class background, ethnicity or rural/urban location, from the majority of their contemporaries who have not used drugs. The cross-sectional data show a rapid secular trend towards the sexes being equally involved in drug use. Significant differences between ever and never users are, however, found in their attitudes towards drug taking and their beliefs about the properties of drugs, although both groups share the same rather negative image of the typical drug user. Thus, drug users have accepted some of the attitudes towards drug issues which are normative in the non-user group, whilst developing other attitudes which are consistent with their continuing use. It is argued that adolescent drug abuse in Malaysia is not to be linked specifically with social deprivation, but should be seen as being part of the life style of particular groups in all strata of society.

Personality, attitudinal, and social correlates of drug use.

Retrospective data on 106 young people collected 10 years prior to this study as well as contemporaneous data were analyzed to determine predictors of drug use. Results indicate that personality factors fared poorly in distinguishing users from nonusers with the exception of anxiety and IQ for hallucinogen use only. Users tended to have high IQs and low anxiety. Social factors seem to play a major role in the spread of drug use. The initiator of the adolescent into drug use is not a group leader but rather an equal status peer group member. Factors in the spread of drug use follow similar patterns for licit as well as illicit drugs.