Predictors of Marijuana Use and Uptake Among Teenagers in Sydney,Australia

Information on drug-related behaviors was obtained from a random sample of teenagers aged 14 to 19 years in Sydney, Australia, interviewed in their homes in 1985 (N = 996) and 1986 (N = 756). The 1985 prevalence of current marijuana use was 10%. The predictors of marijuana use were: male sex; heavier, more frequent alcohol use; use of drugs other than alcohol, tobacco, or marijuana; marijuana use by siblings, friends, and other acquaintances; attitudes and beliefs favoring drug use; the attitude that possession of marijuana should not be a criminal offense; and the attitude that marijuana is not an important drug issue. In the 756 reinterviewed respondents, prevalence of marijuana use rose from 7% in 1985 to 9% in 1986. The rate of uptake was 6% and peaked at 12% at age 17. The predictors of uptake were: age; male sex; heavier, more frequent alcohol use; tobacco smoking; attitudes and beliefs favoring drag use; and the attitude that marijuana smoking should be legal. Strategies to prevent marijuana use need to take into account the strong association between heavy drinking and marijuana use, the influence of drug users in the social network, and attitudes and beliefs about drugs.     

Evaluating alcohol and marijuana use among emerging adult males via analysis of text messages

Background: Advances in social technologies offer new tools for large scale data collection and analysis of peer influence and social networks on substance use attitudes and behaviors. Objective: The objective of this study was to determine if text message content can predict alcohol and marijuana use attitudes and behaviors. Methods: Text messages from 91 males ages 18–25 were monitored over a period of 6 months and examined for content related to alcohol and marijuana. Self-report data indicating alcohol and marijuana use attitudes and behaviors were used to determine relationships between text message content, social network structure, and substance use attitudes and behaviors. Results: In total, 23,173 text messages were analyzed with 166 text messages including alcohol related terms and 195 text messages including drug related terms. Individuals who sent text messages related to alcohol use were more likely to have problem alcohol use and positive attitudes toward alcohol use, and individuals who sent text messages related to marijuana use reported higher frequency of marijuana use and more positive attitudes toward marijuana use. Individuals with multiple daily marijuana use were in positions that had less control over network structure. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that monitoring text message content and social network structure among emerging adult males can potentially predict alcohol and marijuana use attitudes and behaviors. Text message content analysis is a novel technique increasing our understanding of the role of peer influence and social network on substance use attitudes and behaviors.     

Delinquency as a mediator of the relation between negative affectivity and adolescent alcohol use disorder

This investigation examined mediators of the longitudinal relation between negative affectivity and the development of problematic drinking behavior in adolescent boys and girls. In the present study, 499 early adolescents completed inventories of negative affectivity, attitudes toward delinquency, personal delinquency, and affiliation with delinquent peers. Positive attitudes toward delinquency emerged as the most consistent mediator and strongly predicted drinking frequency in various situations. Compared with personal delinquency, both attitudes toward delinquency and peer delinquency were superior predictors of affect-related drinking. Our results also demonstrated that positive attitudes toward delinquency mediated the relation between negative affectivity and later development of an alcohol use disorder. These findings suggest that a proneness to unpleasant affect impacts adolescent drinking by heightening risk for general rejection of normative behavior, rather than by increasing drinking as a means of managing affect. The importance and implications of testing delinquency variables together in the same model are discussed.     

Perceived Environmental Drug Use Risk and the Correlates of Early Drug Use or Nonuse among Inner-City Youths: The Motivated Actor*

The extent to which youth perceive their neighborhood to be at risk was found to be directly related to a series of life-style and drug use context variables. Further, the extent of drug use (nonuse, only alcohol, both alcohol and marijuana) was directly related to two of these variables, but inversely relatedto the extent their friends used “hard” drugs. These results indicate the critical importance of incorporating a measure of perceived risk into drug studies of adolescents, and highlight the need to view youth as motivated actors, guiding their own behavior in an attempt to actualize self-defined values. This is in direct contrast to most theoretical perspectives which regard this age group as merely responding to powerful external influences.     

Patterns of Alcohol and Multiple Drug Use among Rural White and American Indian Adolescents

This study examined the attitudes and practices of a sample of White (N = 667) and American Indian (N = 280) adolescents in regard to the use of alcohol and other drugs. The findings lend general support to the hypothesis of Whitehead et al. that users of any one drug will show increased probability to use another drug when compared to those not using that drug. Additionally, it was found that rural Indian youth are somewhat more likely than rural White youth to be involved with alcohol, marijuana, and hard drugs.     

The influence of attitudes, acculturation, and gender on substance use for Mexican American middle school students

The present study tested if current drug use was related to acculturation (measured by language spoken at home), gender, or youth attitudes towards drugs in a large sample of 8th grade, predominantly Mexican American, Hispanic youth. The data were obtained via self-report survey from 2964 Hispanic youth in 108 schools. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to test if acculturation, gender, or youth attitudes towards drugs predicted past 30-day use of alcohol, inhalant, or marijuana use and assess school-level influences. Acculturation and gender interacted with attitudes towards drugs to predict current alcohol use. Gender interacted with attitudes towards drugs to predict current alcohol and inhalant use. Having positive attitudes towards drugs was related to increased substance use for all three drug types. Hispanic eighth grade girls had significantly higher use rates than boys for both alcohol and inhalants. Additional research is needed to better understand the influence of acculturation on substance use among Hispanic youth.     

Drug Use among White and American Indian High School Youth

Data are presented on a sample of white (N = 391) and American Indian (N = 120) high school youth attending the four high schools in the vicinity of Wyoming's Wind River Reservation. For the most part, the Indian youth were members of either the Arapahoe or Shoshone tribes. The general null hypothesis that no significant differences existed between white and Indian youth in either attitudes toward drug use or in the use of drugs was rejected. The data indicate that Indian youth have a more favorable attitude toward the use of marijuana and other drugs than do white youth. Indian youth were also more likely than white youth to try using marijuana and other drugs, but no more likely than whites to continue using such drugs after having tried them.     

Patterns of illegal drug use among an adult alcohol dependent population: Results from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health

The use of illegal drugs is common in alcohol dependence and significant psychological and social consequences are associated with the concurrent use of alcohol and illegal drugs. However, little literature has examined the patterns of concurrent-drug use in alcohol dependent individuals. A latent class analysis (LCA) was used to determine whether patterns of past year illegal drug use existed in a national sample of 6059 alcohol dependent respondents of the combined 2005, 2006 and 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Multinomial logistic regression was then used to determine whether demographic variables, mental health disturbance and social consequences were predictive of drug use classes. Results of the LCA demonstrated a 5-class solution with optimal fit deduced by Bayesian Information Criterion minima. The five classes included: a close to zero probability of illegal drug use (class 1: 65%), medium marijuana, medium sedatives/tranquilizers and high analgesics (class 2: 7%), high marijuana, medium cocaine use (class 3: 21%), high probabilities of marijuana, cocaine, sedatives and analgesic use (class 4: 6%) and a high concurrent-drug use except other hallucinogens (class 5: 1%). Regression results suggest that younger age, comorbidity, engaging in deviant behaviors, sexually transmitted infection and incarceration are associated with concurrent illegal drug use in alcohol dependent individuals. Findings advocate that more intense psychiatric and drug dependence treatment resources may be needed for concurrent-drug using alcohol dependent populations and provide evidence for targeted prevention and treatment interventions.     

Person–Environment Fit,Substance Use Attitudes,and Early Adolescent Substance Use

Background: Adolescent substance use is a national health concern. While the literature is clear on the prevalence of substance use during the adolescent developmental period, a dearth of literature is available on the developmental contexts, particularly the influence of school factors, in which substance use occurs. Objectives: This study examined the intermediary role of substance use attitudes on the relationship between school racial composition and alcohol and marijuana use in a sample of sixth to eighth graders. Methods: The sample consisted of 4228 middle school students (89% White; 53% female) in the Midwest. A moderated mediation analysis was conducted on the relationship between school racial composition, substance use attitudes, and substance use, with race as the moderator. Results: Results indicated a significant relationship between the percentage of White or Black students in a school and alcohol or marijuana use and that this relationship was mediated by substance use attitudes. These relationships did not differ significantly by student race. Conclusions/Importance: Preliminary findings indicate the importance of considering school racial composition as a systems level risk or promotive factor for attitudes toward substance use as well as substance use outcomes.     

Attitudes Toward Medical Cannabis Legalization Among Serbian Medical Students

Background: Currently, medical cannabis polices are experiencing rapid changes, and an increasing number of nations around the world legalize medical cannabis for certain groups of patients, including those in Serbia. Objectives: To determine medical students' attitudes toward medical cannabis legalization and to examine the factors influencing their attitudes. Methods: Fourth-year medical students at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, had participated in a cross-sectional study. Data were collected by an anonymous questionnaire. Results: Overall, 63.4% students supported medical cannabis legalization, and only 20.8% supported its legalization for recreational use. Students who previously used marijuana (p <.001) and alcohol (p =.004) were significantly more in favor of medical cannabis legalization compared with students who never used them. Support for marijuana recreational use was also related to prior marijuana (p <.001) and alcohol consumption (p =.006). Only cancer (90.4%) and chronic pain (74.2%) were correctly reported approved medical indications by more than half the students. Students who supported medical cannabis legalization showed better knowledge about indications, in contrast to opponents for legalization who showed better knowledge about side effects. Beliefs that using medical cannabis is safe and has health benefits were correlated with support for legalization, and previous marijuana and alcohol use, while beliefs that medical cannabis poses health risks correlated most strongly with previous marijuana use. Conclusions/Importance: The medical students' attitudes toward medical cannabis legalization were significantly correlated with previous use of marijuana and alcohol, knowledge about medical indications and side effects, and their beliefs regarding medical cannabis health benefits and risks.     

Sensation Seeking,Attitudes Toward Drug Use,and Actual Use Among Adolescents: Testing a Model for Alcohol and Ecstacy Use

The use of ecstasy (MDMA), one of the most popular substances among young people in the context of many leisure and fun activities, is moving from party and recreation circuits to high schools and college dorms, in many cases in combination with alcohol consumption. Bearing in mind the concurrent use of the two drugs and the “gateway” thesis of a progression from legal drugs to illegal ones, a causal model of linkages among sensation seeking, attitudes toward alcohol and ecstasy consumption, and frequency of use was tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). The data were obtained from a sample of 450 high school students ranging in age from 14 to 18 (47% male, 53% female). An additional moderator analysis was performed in order to examine a possible moderating role of sensation seeking in the relationship between attitudes toward consumption and frequency of use of both alcohol and ecstasy. Results were consistent with the hypothesis that positive attitudes toward consumption mediate the effects of sensation seeking on drug use. In addition, whereas our results were coherent with the existence of direct effects of sensation seeking on drug use, these were only found in the case of alcohol consumption. However, a moderating effect of this same variable was observed in the relationship between positive attitudes toward ecstasy consumption and its frequency of use. General and specific clinical implications and limitations of these findings are discussed and future lines of research suggested.     

Effect of Adolescent Cigarette Smoking on Adulthood Substance Use and Abuse: The Mediating Role of Educational Attainment

Background: Even though the association between cigarette smoking and later substance use has been shown, there is still no compelling evidence that demonstrates the long-term effects in a high drug using community in African Americans. Few studies have examined the mediating mechanisms of the effect of adolescent cigarette smoking on the drug progression pathway.

Objectives: We examined the long-term influence of adolescent smoking on later illegal drug use in a cohort of urban African Americans, and the mediating role of educational attainment in the drug progression pathway. Methods: The study used a longitudinal dataset from the Woodlawn Project that followed 1,242 African Americans from 1966–1967 (at age 6–7) through 2002–2003 (at age 42–43). We used the propensity score matching method to find a regular and a nonregular adolescent smoking group that had similar childhood characteristics; we used the matched sample to assess the association between adolescent smoking and drug progression, and the mediating role of educational attainment. Results: Adolescent regular smokers showed significantly higher odds of using marijuana, cocaine, and heroin, having alcohol abuse problems and any drug dependence, and abuse problems in adulthood. We found that educational attainment mediated most of the drug progression pathway, including cigarette smoking, marijuana, cocaine and heroin use, and drug dependence or abuse problems in adulthood, but not alcohol abuse. Conclusions: More focus needs to be put on high school dropout and development of interventions in community settings for African Americans to alter the pathway for drug progression for adolescents who use cigarettes regularly.     

A content analysis of personal strivings: associations with substance use

This study examined relations between personal strivings and frequency of alcohol, marijuana, and any drug use among college students. Personal strivings are ongoing goals that an individual is characteristically trying to achieve through their behavior. Participants generated lists of personal strivings following standard instructions and then completed an assessment of alcohol and marijuana use and days used any drug (aside from tobacco or medication as prescribed). Personal strivings were coded into content categories by trained raters using a coding manual. Four content categories were examined for this study: achievement, affect regulation, self-presentation, and interpersonal. A series of t-tests revealed that participants' achievement strivings were unrelated to substance use. In contrast, participants endorsing more affect regulation goals used all drugs more frequently. Self-presentation goals were positively associated with alcohol use but unrelated to marijuana or other drug use. Finally, interpersonal goals were associated with higher rates of alcohol use, lower rates of marijuana use, and not related to total use days.     

Social Determinants of Alcohol and Marijuana Effects: A Systematic Theory

Based on the sociological perspective on recreational drug effects, three social determinants are propositionally related to the normal effects of alcohol and marijuana. Effects vary across drugs, users, and situations along an experiential-behavioral dimension termed “effect-orientation.” The content of normative expectations toward effects and the interactional characteristics of drug-using situations are conceptualized as direct determinants of effect-orientations. The relative clarity of normative expectations indirectly influences effect-orientations through its relationship to the other two social determinants. The theory stresses the importance of comparative research on the normal uses of alcohol and marijuana.     

Social factors associated with drug use in the Mexican school-age population: A comparison of two national surveys

Objectives: This study analyses changes in drug use in Mexican junior high and high-school students and identifies differences over two decades in the social factors (availability of drugs, perceptions of risk and social tolerance) associated with such use. Method: Data from two national surveys, conducted in 1991 and 2014, were analysed. Results: Data show that the proportion of students who had tried drugs doubled in 2014. In both surveys, substance use was significantly associated with a high perception of availability and use by friends and older siblings; in 2014, there was a decrease in the perception of risk for marijuana use and an increase in social tolerance toward illegal drugs. Conclusions: It can be inferred from this analysis that public policy to prevent drug use has not had the expected impact, at least not on the social factors considered here.     

Daily Reports of Positive and Negative Affect and Alcohol and Marijuana Use Among College Student and Nonstudent Young Adults

Background: Daily affect and substance use covary among college students, but little is known about these associations among young adults not in college. Objectives: The current pilot study examines associations between positive and negative affect and alcohol and marijuana use, with a focus on differences between college student and nonstudent young adults. Methods: High school seniors completed a baseline survey during the spring of 2012 and were then randomly selected to participate in an intensive measurement follow-up. Participants in the follow-up (N = 72, 40.3% men, 77.8% White, 66.7% full-time college students) completed up to 14 consecutive web-based daily surveys during the fall after high school completion. Multilevel models in which days (Level 1) were nested in persons (Level 2) were estimated. Results: Weekend days were associated with increased alcohol use among all young adults, increased marijuana use among college students, and decreased marijuana use among nonstudents. For young adults not in college, greater daily positive affect was associated with increased likelihood of binge drinking, consuming a greater number of drinks, and lower odds of marijuana use; greater daily negative affect was associated with lower odds of alcohol use and lower odds of binge drinking for non-students. For college students, greater daily negative affect was associated with lower odds of marijuana use. Conclusions/Importance: Daily affect and alcohol and marijuana use covary among young adults, though these associations differ between students and non-students. Results highlight the need to examine predictors of alcohol and marijuana use among young adults who do not attend college.     

Substance Use,Mental Disorders,Abuse, and Crime: Gender Comparisons Among a National Sample of Adolescent Drug Treatment Clients

ABSTRACT

This paper describes important gender comparisons in drug and alcohol use, illegal activity, physical and sexual abuse, and mental health problems among a large sample of adolescents (N = 3,382) who were treated from 1993 to 1995 in adolescent-oriented drug programs that participated in the Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome Study of Adolescents. Most of the adolescents reported regular use of marijuana and alcohol; males had higher rates of illegal activity and involvement with the juvenile justice system; females reported more sexual abuse, while males reported more physical abuse; and males and females had equal rates of conduct disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.     

Concurrent and simultaneous drug and alcohol use: results of the 2000 National Alcohol Survey

This study estimates the prevalence, assesses predictors and evaluates factors associated with concurrent and simultaneous use of drugs and alcohol in the United States population. Using data from the 2000 National Alcohol Survey (n=7612), respondents were asked if they used specific drugs in the last 12 months. Current drinkers who reported using each type of drug were asked if they used alcohol and the drug at the same time. Approximately 10% reported using marijuana in the last 12 months (concurrent use); 7% reported drinking alcohol and using marijuana at the same time (simultaneous use). Approximately 5% of current drinkers reported using drugs other than marijuana in the last 12 months; 1.7% reported drinking alcohol and using drugs other than marijuana at the same time. Being younger, having less than a high school education, not having a regular partner and having heavier drinking patterns were associated with using alcohol and marijuana simultaneously. Simultaneous use of marijuana and alcohol as well as other drugs and alcohol were significantly related to social consequences, alcohol dependence, and depression. These results mirror clinical populations in which increasingly younger clients report use of alcohol and drugs and need treatment for both.     

Research Note: Barbadian Adolescents' Knowledge of,and Attitudes toward,Drugs: An Exploratory Study

A questionnaire examining drug attitudes and use was completed by 414 Barbadian secondary school students. Self-reports indicated approximately 70% had tried alcohol, 30% had smoked tobacco, and 9% had tried marijuana. Only one had used heroin and none had tried cocaine. The great majority of students thought it important to be well informed about drugs, and that their government was not doing enough to provide the necessary education or to halt the cultivation and importation of illegal substances. Findings are discussed with reference to public and media concern about drug abuse in the Caribbean.