Building on Bridging the Gap: Environmental Influences on Teen Substance Use

Introduction: With deficits and other economic issues facing the federal and many state and local governments, reductions in aid at all levels of social organization (i.e., school, community, and state) have occurred and are expected to continue. It is imperative to close gaps in understanding important environmental strategies for reducing substance use behaviors among young people. The remarkable success of tobacco control and prevention efforts legitimizes their expense and can inform prevention efforts that work to reduce tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use behaviors among youth. This is especially timely given the recent increased use in marijuana among youth and both youths’ and adults’ more relaxed views toward marijuana.   

Methods: In Phase 1 of this study, we used 2000-2006+ data from Monitoring the Future (MTF) to examine how 8^th, 10^th, and 12^th graders perceptions of school-based enforcement and penalty policies against substance use influence their tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use behaviors. In Phase 2, we comprehensively examined the integrated effects of school, state policy, and media influences on youth tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use behaviors. We linked MTF survey data with school-level tobacco, alcohol, and drug use policy data and with Nielsen media market data on exposure to anti-tobacco/drug advertising as well as state substance use policies.  

Results: Students’ collective perception that schools or teachers are more vigorous with preventing substance use was associated with lower student body rates of cigarette, alcohol, and marijuana use in the last 30 days; student body rates of daily alcohol drinking was also lower (Phase 1). In testing the efficacy of school, state policy, and media prevention efforts (Phase 2) against tobacco use, we found that the tobacco behaviors of youth were responsive to increases in cigarette prices and anti-tobacco media effects, but school-based anti-tobacco programs indicated no impact. Analyses for alcohol and marijuana prevention efforts are underway.

Conclusions: Tobacco control efforts have touted enormous success over the years. Our findings use population-level data to further legitimize the most salient environmental influences that effectively reduce youth tobacco use behaviors. As society is becoming more tolerant of marijuana use and recreational use of marijuana is increasing, our findings make progress towards applying the lessons learned from tobacco control and prevention efforts to curtail the alcohol and marijuana use behaviors among young people.