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Key Influences on Youth Drug Use Identified
Peer use and peer attitudes are two of the strongest predictors of marijuana use among all young people according to a new national study released today by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
The odds of youths aged 12 to 17 using marijuana in the past year were 39 times higher among those who had at least a few close friends who tried or used marijuana than among those who did not have such friends. The odds of 12 to 17 year olds using marijuana in the past year were 16 times higher among those adolescents who thought their friends would not be "very" upset if they tried marijuana once or twice than among those whose friends felt differently.
Conversely, a perception of strong antidrug attitudes appears to be a powerful inhibitor of drug use among close friends. While peer attitudes had more influence compared to parental attitudes, strong antidrug attitudes by parents are also one of the most powerful inhibitors of drug use. Young people who reported that their parents would "not be very" upset if they smoked marijuana once a month were 9.6 times more likely to use marijuana in the past year than those with parents who would be "very" upset. Even mild antidrug attitudes -- close friends being "somewhat upset" -- are associated with lower levels of individual marijuana use, but mild antidrug attitudes by parents are no more inhibiting to youth drug use than parental dispassion -- "not at all upset."
"Parents want to do what is best for their children," said Joseph H. Autry III, M.D., acting SAMHSA administrator. "Knowing your child's friends and demonstrating strong antidrug attitudes are two of the most important things parents can do to protect their children from the dangers of substance abuse."
Other risk factors that were associated with an increased likelihood of past year marijuana use among young people include peer attitudes and use of alcohol and tobacco, and parent attitudes about use of alcohol and tobacco. Young people were more likely to use marijuana if they would not talk to their parents about serious problems, were not enrolled in school or received poor grades in school, did not attend religious services once a week, and were not involved in music or arts activities.
While the main focus of the report is on marijuana, the study examined the use of alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs other than marijuana as well.
A very striking result of the analysis was the uniformity regardless of substance or race/ethnicity in the patterns of association between substance use and risk and protective factors. While the strength of the relationship may have varied, the factors most strongly correlated with past year use, intensity of past year use, and past year nonuse of cigarettes were also the factors most strongly associated with use, intensity, or nonuse of alcohol, marijuana, and other illicit drugs," Dr. Autry continued.
While it was expected that exposure to prevention messages in school drug education, and talking with a parent or other adult about the dangers of drugs and alcohol would be associated with lower levels of drug use, the results were mixed.
As expected, adolescents who had not received in-school drug/alcohol education in the past year were slightly more likely to report past year marijuana use (odds ratio is about 1.4), when compared with those who had received in-school drug/alcohol education. On the other hand, the study found no significant difference in the prevalence of past year marijuana use between youths who had spoken with a parent or other adult in the past year about the dangers of alcohol and drug use and those who had not.
The lack of detail in this study regarding these items including information on intensity, frequency, timing and appropriateness of prevention messages or conversations suggest the need for further analysis before any conclusions can be drawn.
"The role of risk and protective factors in substance abuse has been investigated for about 20 years," said Ruth Sanchez-Way Ph.D., director of SAMHSA's Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. "We now have a comprehensive set of nationally representative data on these factors. We will use this information to help focus substance abuse prevention programs on the factors that are the most important for success."
The report concludes the risk and protective factors studied explain a significant amount of the total variation in individual substance use. For example, together with demographic factors they explained 61 percent of past year marijuana use. Because other research has shown a causal relationship between certain risk factors and protective variables and youth substance use, changing these factors could reduce youth levels of past year substance use.
These findings are from the first comprehensive analysis of risk and protective factors related to substance abuse that is nationally representative. To conduct the analysis a new module of questions was added to SAMHSA's National Household Survey on Drug Abuse in 1997. The analysis is based on a sample of over 7,800 12 to 17 year olds. The cross-sectional nature of the study precludes drawing conclusions of a causal relationship between risk and protective factors and substance use.
The Household Survey is one of three major surveys, conducted by agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services, that monitor substance abuse prevalence and trends. Other surveys include the National Institute on Drug Abuse's Monitoring the Future and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Each of these surveys have their own specific purposes and provide a powerful tool to measure progress in the Nation's efforts to reduce substance abuse.
SAMHSA, a public health agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the lead federal agency for improving the quality and availability of substance abuse prevention, addiction treatment and mental health services in the United States. Information on SAMHSA's programs is available on the Internet at http://www.samhsa.gov .