Understanding the Developing Attitudes of Early Adolescents Around Drugs

Use of illicit drugs in the United States has increased dramatically over the last decade, with over 40,000 unintentional overdoses in 2011 and over 47, 055 in 2014. A robust body of research supports drug treatment and prevention programs as key to reducing problematic alcohol and drug use. Key to this program development is understanding why individuals engage in drug use. There are two unique aspects to this study when considering understanding drug use. First, we are primarily interested in adolescent drug use. Initiation during this time represents a significant risk for subsequent negative outcomes such as alcohol or other substance abuse dependence later in life (King & Chassin, 2007). Second, we are interested in potential gender differences in adolescent substance use. Substantial evidence exists that gender differences in rates of substance abuse disorders are clear in adulthood with men more likely to be diagnosed with substance abuse disorders compared to women (Eaton et al., 2012). These differences likely begin to emerge in adolescence.

The current study includes participants pulled from the larger Coordinated Community Student Survey (C2S2). Participants come from the first wave of this study that examines school and health behavior among youth in fourth through eleventh grade (n = 12,450). Within this sample, 53% were female, with 78% identifying as White, 9% as African American, 6% as multiracial, and the remaining 7% in another category. Within this sample, 5% of youth were at risk for unhealthy cigarette use, 15% for unhealthy alcohol use, and 5% at risk for unhealthy marijuana use.

Using latent class analysis, the best fitting solution classified youth into three different groups based on their attitudes of acceptability of drug use. For example, 88.8% stated that any drug use is very bad for you in all situations. A second class (8.6%) said that occasional cigarette or alcohol use was not very bad for you, but more frequent use of cigarettes and alcohol, and marijuana and inhalant use, was. A final class (2.6%) reported that all substances, regardless of frequency, were not very bad for you. As a follow-up, we intend to examine what predicts membership (e.g., gender, age, and risk versus protective factors) in these profiles. These analyses would allow us to help determine the timing of when youth attitudes toward drugs change and understand related risk and protective factors.