Substance Use Profiles Among Gang-Involved Youth: Social Ecology Implications for Service Approaches

A longitudinal study of protective factors against substance use in early adolescence. An ecological approach

BACKGROUND

Adolescent substance use has been widely related to different individual, school, family and community factors. Yet, the number of studies with all these variables together in a model from an ecological perspective is still low, and they rarely used a longitudinal design. The aim of this study was to explore, from an ecological perspective, the prospective impact of different individual, school, family and neighbourhood factors on adolescent substance use.

METHODS

This was a longitudinal study with a one-year follow up. There were 881 participants (M_age = 12.57; 48.1% females) at wave 1, of which 686 (M_age = 13.51; 51.8% females) were followed-up at wave 2. Validated questionnaires were used for data collection.

RESULTS

Regression analyses showed that higher substance use was predicted by high family socio-economic status cross-sectionally and longitudinally, and it was related to low neighbourhood socio-economic status cross-sectionally only. Participants who disliked school and had a poor academic performance were more likely to use substances, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally.

CONCLUSIONS

The inclusion of families in substance use prevention programmes could be a key component in these interventions. Moreover, promotion of a positive school climate could protect adolescents from using substances.

Relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences and substance use in youth offenders in Singapore

BACKGROUND

Adverse Childhood Experiences are associated with worse outcomes in delinquency and substance use.

OBJECTIVE

Current research is overwhelmingly from Western perspectives, leaving a gap in non-Western, low crime-rate jurisdictions. Moreover, there exists a gap in characterizing the effect of ACE frequency on delinquency. We extend existing research by examining relationships between ACE and substance use in youth offenders in Singapore.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

The study included 790 youth offenders (669 males, M_age = 17.59 years) from a longitudinal study on youth offending.

METHODS

Multiple regression was performed to examine relationships between self-reported ACEs and substance use. Latent Class Analysis was conducted to identify classes of substance use onset. The relationship between these classes and cumulative ACEs and ACE frequency were then tested using multiple regression.

RESULTS

Youth offenders who consume alcohol (B = 0.66, p = .002) and illicit drugs (B = 0.38, p = .02) had more cumulative and more frequent ACEs than those who do not. Moreover, we found a positive relationship between ACEs and substance use frequency. Those who started taking substances in childhood had significantly more ACEs and had worse drug dependency problems than those who started later (t = 5.93, p < .0001). Additionally, there was a positive relationship between ACEs and drug use dependency (B = 0.11, p = .03).

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings highlight the importance of ACEs as risk factors for substance use. This underscores the need for comprehensive screening and treatment of ACEs and substance use in the rehabilitative context.