Substance Abuse In Young Adults Research Articles

Family, Individual, and Other Risk Factors Contributing to Risk of Substance Abuse in Young Adults: A Narrative Review.

Substance use disorder and the availability of certain over-the-counter drugs are worldwide issues that affect many individuals, both mentally and physically. As a result,the frequent use of this substance can lead to substance abuse. This phenomenon is also becoming more prevalent with time, and it does not differentiate between genders, ages, races, or religions. This review aimed to provide an overview of studies related to substance abuse, the individuals who tend to abuse these substances,and their risk factors. We also aimed to discuss, identify, and analyze the factors that increase the risk of substance abuse among young adults. We performed a thoroughsearch for related studies using PubMed to provide a comprehensive review of the risk factorsand side effects experienced by young adults. The selectedindexing terms included "substance abuse,""risk factors," and "personality traits," among others. Information was gathered from relevant peer-reviewed publications, and thereafter refined, and summarized.

Adverse Childhood Experiences and Substance Abuse in Young Adults: A Correlational Study

Adverse Childhood Experiences and Substance Abuse in Young Adults: A Correlational Study

Associations of Cumulative Family Risk With Academic Performance and Substance Involvement: Tests of Moderation by Child Reading Engagement

Background: Exposure to cumulative contextual risk within the family early in life increases children’s risk for substance involvement and related difficulties, including school failure, in adolescence and young adulthood. However, potential protective factors that buffer these risk associations are relatively untested, yet such tests are needed to improve existing preventive interventions for enhancing resilience among vulnerable children. Objectives: This study tested child reading engagement with parents at home as a moderator of cumulative family risk associations with adolescent substance use and academic performance as well as young adult substance abuse. Methods: Population register data as well as parent-report and adolescent-report data from 6,963 participants of the 1986 Northern Finland Birth Cohort study were analyzed via structural equation modeling with latent variable interactions. Results: Results showed that child reading engagement moderated the associations of cumulative family risk with both adolescent academic performance and young adult substance abuse, but not with adolescent substance use. The highest levels of academic performance were observed under conditions of low risk and high reading engagement. Interestingly, cumulative family risk had a small positive association with substance abuse when reading engagement was low and a negative association with the young adult outcome when reading engagement was high. Conclusions/Importance: Moderation tests revealed complex interaction forms that may have implications for both theory and family-based preventive interventions.

A Systematic Review of the mHealth Interventions to Prevent Alcohol and Substance Abuse

Substance abuse in young adults is a public health issue with costs to the individual and society. There is mounting evidence that the increased uses of mHealth approaches have promise as a way to facilitate reductions in substance use. This systematic review evaluated the recent body of research on mHealth-based interventions for substance use, with aims of (a) examining the functionality and effectiveness of these interventions, (b) evaluating the available research on the effectiveness of these interventions for substance use, and (c) evaluating the design, methodology, results, theoretical grounding, limitations, and implications of each study. We identified eligible studies by searching electronic databases using Boolean methods. The reviewed studies (N = 12) indicated that that a wide range of Internet-based, text messaging, and smartphone application interventions have been developed to address substance use. Interventions had an assortment of features; participants in each study highlighted the ease and convenience of the interventions; and the majority of studies provided support for the efficacy of mHealth in reducing substance use. Mobile technology is a promising tool for reducing substance use and warrants further development. Future practice including the use of mHealth interventions can be an integral part of reducing substance use.

The behavioral economics of young adult substance abuse

Alcohol and drug use peaks during young adulthood and can interfere with critical developmental tasks and set the stage for chronic substance misuse and associated social, educational, and health-related outcomes. There is a need for novel, theory-based approaches to guide substance abuse prevention efforts during this critical developmental period. This paper discusses the particular relevance of behavioral economic theory to young adult alcohol and drug misuse, and reviews of available literature on prevention and intervention strategies that are consistent with behavioral economic theory. Behavioral economic theory predicts that decisions to use drugs and alcohol are related to the relative availability and price of both alcohol and substance-free alternative activities, and the extent to which reinforcement from delayed substance-free outcomes is devalued relative to the immediate reinforcement associated with drugs. Behavioral economic measures of motivation for substance use are based on relative levels of behavioral and economic resource allocation towards drug versus alternatives, and have been shown to predict change in substance use over time. Policy and individual level prevention approaches that are consistent with behavioral economic theory are discussed, including brief interventions that increase future orientation and engagement in rewarding alternatives to substance use. Prevention approaches that increase engagement in constructive future-oriented activities among young adults (e.g., educational/vocational success) have the potential to reduce future health disparities associated with both substance abuse and poor educational/vocational outcomes.

Not Just Academics: Paths of Longitudinal Effects From Parent Involvement to Substance Abuse in Emerging Adulthood

PurposeBy the 12th grade, half of American adolescents have abused an illicit drug at least once (Johnston et al., 2015). Although many substance misuse prevention programs exist, we propose an alternative mechanism for reducing substance use. There is evidence that parent involvement is related to reductions in children's behavior problems which then predict later substance abuse. We examine the Child-Parent Center (CPC) program, an early childhood intervention, as a strategy to impact substance abuse. MethodsWe conducted a path analysis from CPC to parent involvement through early adolescent problem behaviors and competencies to young adult substance abuse. Participants (N = 1,203; 51.5% female; 93.8% African-American) were assessed from age 3 to 26 years. ResultsCPC participation initiates a pathway to increased parent involvement and expectations, which positively impact adolescents' competencies and problem behaviors, lowering rates of substance abuse. ConclusionsThrough early childhood education, increasing early parental involvement and expectations can alter life-course outcomes by providing children with a foundation for positive behaviors and encouraging adaptive functioning in adolescence.

Evaluation of Methods (From Hotlines to Texting) of Connecting to Youth in a Time of Substance Use Related Crisis the Mpower Project

Purpose: Adolescent and young adult substance abuse is a major societal problem. There is a lack of well-utilized, crisis oriented, developmentally appropriate substance use resources for adolescents and young adults. A crisis hotline was thought to be a modality that was suited to adolescents given its independence from a school setting and appeal to youth who have an increased desire for autonomy from parents and authority figures. The mPower project created a developmentally appropriate curriculum to be used in training volunteers to staff a hotline for youth at a time of crisis related to substance use, when they may be reluctant to access traditional health care venues.

Indian psychiatry and research in Pakistan.

In Asian culture, there is much stigmatization attached on having mental health problems and seeking help from a mental health expert. It is therefore, not surprising, that this stigmatization results in the refutation of the subsistence of a psychiatric problem in an individual and his family but also produces obstruction to help-seeking desires. To get a clear picture of the existence of psychiatric issues in the population, various research projects addressing psychiatric issues in children, women, and elderly are conducted both in Pakistan and India. A significant input has been taken from research conducted in India combating disaster management. In addition, public awareness programs are organized to provide information about common psychiatric disorders in children, adults, women, and the elderly.-Furthermore, psychiatric patients and their families are educated for the management of mental heath problems related to marriage, pregnancy, birth and hazards of smoking & substance abuse in young adults. Keeping in view the similarity in cultural background, treatment models, family structure, and psychosocial factors, collaborative research studies should be encouraged leading to improvement in psychiatric care of the patients both in India and Pakistan.

Attentional bias for doping words and its relation with physical self-esteem in young adolescents

Objectives Previous studies revealed that adolescence is a period of risk for doping and drug addiction and that young athletes who used doping agents reported low self-esteem. We conducted a preventive study with the aims to investigate whether young adolescents displayed an attentional bias to doping-related words and whether this attentional bias was related to physical self-esteem. Method Ninety seven adolescents (44 girls and 53 boys) from 11 to 15 years-old participated to a study designed to measure reaction times (RT) in a Stroop emotional task related to doping, cheating and control words. They also completed the Physical Self-Perception Profile subscales assessing perceived general self-esteem, physical self-worth, physical condition, sport competence, body attractiveness, and physical strength. Results Participants exhibited longer RT after doping words than after control words. RT was also longer after doping than after cheating words. Participants belonging to the low physical self-esteem group exhibited larger carry-over effects than those who were in the high physical self-esteem group. Conclusions These findings suggest that attentional resources allocated to doping words are already present at the onset of adolescence, and that they may be linked to a psychological feature (physical self-esteem) considered as a risk factor of substance abuse in young adults involved in competitive sports.

Relationships Matter: Impact of Parental, Peer Factors on Teen, Young Adult Substance Abuse

Relationships Matter: Impact of Parental, Peer Factors on Teen, Young Adult Substance Abuse

HIV Risk Behaviors in Adolescent and Young Adult Substance Users Undergoing Treatment

Among substance abusing youth HIV remains a threat due in part to the multiple risk factors often found in this population. Therefore drug detoxification facilities are important sites in which to characterize the extent of drug and sexual co-occurring risk behaviors among patients. The authors distributed a self-administered anonymous questionnaire to patients at two state-funded Rhode Island detoxification facilities to examine the HIV-related risk behaviors of adolescent and young adult substance abusers and to examine the influence of gender on these behaviors. The authors found that 62% of all respondents reported injecting drugs in the past 6 months and 67% of current injecting drug users (IDUs) reported sharing syringes in the past 6 months. 46% and 70% of sexually active youth reported never using condoms in the past 6 months for vaginal and anal sex respectively. Females were significantly more likely to report a lifetime history of injecting drugs exchanging sex for drugs or money and having sex with an IDU. The high rates of sharing injection equipment and the prevalence of risky sexual activity underscore the need to develop interventions that specifically address the needs of young substance abusing males and females. (authors)

Subtype by comorbidity in young adult substance abusers.

Comorbidity of psychiatric and substance use disorders is prevalent in adult substance abusers and influences the outcome of substance abuse treatment. To study the impact of comorbid disorders, adult subjects are subtyped into primary and secondary abusers. This study assessed comorbidity in young adult substance abusers involved in treatment, and evaluated the utility of the primary/secondary distinction in this population. Over half of the sample met criteria for at least one current psychiatric diagnosis. Subtyping resulted in 20 primary and 34 secondary abusers. The groups differed on gender, age of first problem due to substance use, depressive symptomatology, and reasons for use of alcohol. Secondary abusers reported more severe family and psychiatric problems than did primary abusers. The groups did not differ in the severity of alcohol or drug problems. These results indicate that comorbidity must be evaluated and addressed when treating young adult substance abusers.

Relationships between perceived parental acceptance-rejection, psychological adjustment, and substance abuse among young adults

This study examined the relationship between perceived parental acceptance-rejection, psychological adjustment, and substance abuse. A volunteer sample of 40 young adult substance abusers was compared to a comparable volunteer sample of 40 nonabusers with respect to individuals' perceptions of paternal and maternal acceptance-rejection and psychological adjustment. Discriminant function analysis using the jackknife procedure was utilized to examine the predictive power and the classification accuracy of perceived parental acceptance-rejection and psychological adjustment. Results of the research show that: (a) Both perceived paternal and maternal rejection in childhood tend to be significantly higher among substance abusers than among nonabusers, and; (b) substance abusers are more impaired in their current psychological adjustment than are nonabusers. These two classes of predictor variables yield a correlation of .77 with group membership (i.e., abusers vs. nonabusers), and the three predictor variables successfully discriminate substance abusers from nonabusers with jackknifed classification accuracy of 87.5%. Adding the demographic variable “education level” to the model raises the jackknifed classification accuracy to 91.2%, yielding only seven misclassifications in the total sample of 80 volunteers.

The Family in the Etiology and Treatment of Drug Abuse:

The role of the family in the etiology of drug abuse may be perceived in a significant proportion of adolescent and young adult substance abusers. This role is presented in the context of a systems and object-relations theory. A composite portrait of these generative types of families is presented in psychodynamic and affective terms, accompanied by guidelines and suggetions for family-based treatment.