By Zachary LaRocca-Stravalle; Biology Major, Class of 2021
This is blog post is an annotated bibliography focusing on substance abuse in adolescence, as well as contributing factors and interventions. Such substance abuse includes excessive alcohol consumption, smoking, and drug use. The reason I chose this topic to post is because I think it's important to address excessive and illicit drug use in the adolescent population, as adolescence is a critical time of social and neurological development.
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| Fig 1. Effects of drug abuse on the the brain, fMRI https://alcoholawareness.org/alcoholism/effects-of-alcohol-on-the-brain.html |
Article One: Interventions for Adolescent Substance Abuse: An Overview of Systematic Reviews.
Citation: Das, J. K., Salam, R. A., Arshad, A., Finkelstein, Y., & Bhutta, Z. A. (2016). Interventions for Adolescent Substance Abuse: An Overview of Systematic Reviews. Journal of Adolescent Health, 59(4). doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2016.06.021
Adolescence is associated with period of increased substance abuse behaviors were smoking, drinking, and illicit drug use become most prominent, and these behaviors may last into adulthood. Various factors contribute to the initiation and continuation of substance abuse, namely socioeconomic status, parenting quality, peer influence, and biological predisposition. Therefore, awareness and prevention programs should be implemented to reduce substance abuse and educate the populous of its effects, particularly on adolescence. In Das et. al. review, the methods and effectiveness of various types of interventions reviewed in the literature were accumulated and systematically evaluated. The reviews on substance intervention were divided among smoking and tobacco use (n=20), alcohol use (n=8), drug use (n=2) and combined substance abuse (n=16) for a total of 46 eligible reviews. Among those substance categories, the interventions were evaluated by type: school-based interventions, family/community interventions, digital platform interventions, policy level interventions and multicomponent interventions. Setting and geographical location were also taken into account when selecting reviews, in an attempt at collecting intervention efficacy in various conditions -- interventions that did not take place in high income countries, for example.
The results of the study suggest that for smoking interventions, school based interventions were the most successful, as well as family based intensive interventions. For alcohol use, school based interventions frequently reduced alcohol consumption. School based interventions based on social influence approaches have shown to prevent drug use. This is a similar result for combined substance abuse
Article Two: Frequency of Substance Abuse Among Adolescents
Drug addiction is a prominent issue for adolescents in developing countries, such as in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In this study, the frequency of drug abuse was gathered from 502 children and adolescents in primary and secondary schools in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Gracanica, Kosovo. The goals of the study were to identify not only the frequency of drug abuse but the factors that may contribute to its abuse, relating to biological, psychological and socioeconomic conditions. The study was carried out using a survey. It was found that 8% of subjects tried drugs before they turned 15 and students in Sarajevo consumed 50% more drugs the those in Gracanica. This study found that significant risk factors involved in adolescent drug abuse are educational attainment of the parents, financial status of parents, parents’ drug/alcohol use, adolescents’ attitude to parents, parents’ relationship with each other, school performance, and positive attitude to drugs. The study suggests the benefits of interventions and greater education of the consequences of drugs, through adverts, for example.
Article Three: Urban Differences in Adolescent Alcohol Use, Alcohol Supply, and Parental Drinking
It is well-documented that the amount of alcohol consumption is greater in rural areas compared to urban areas. However, there is little evidence for the rural-urban differences among adolescents, particularly. Given evidence that the younger a person is when they start to drink alcohol the higher risk they are of developing alcohol problems later in life, as well as the associated attitudes they develop in those formative years, it is important to understand how alcohol use might be affecting adolescents in different environments; a rural-urban distinction. Chan et. al. conducted a study focusing on adolescent and parent alcohol use in Australia, with the hypothesis that rural adolescents and their parents would consume more alcohol than their urban counterparts. They sampled a total of 23,855 adolescents and parents and give them surveys with questions about the frequency and location of their drinking. The results of the study were consistent with the hypothesis that rural adolescents and parents drank more than those in urban environments. Chan et. al. attributes this, in part, to cultural attitudes about drinking in rural vs urban areas. Additionally, the correlation between parent drinking and adolescent drinking suggest that parent attitudes toward alcohol heavily influence their children. Reasonably, many differences might exist in parental conditions and attainment between rural and urban groups which were not directly considered. Parent‐focused community‐based prevention might be beneficial in these circumstances.
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| Fig 2. The age at which parents allowed adolescent to drink at home by patterns of adolescent alcohol use at 17-18 years of age. https://aifs.gov.au/publications/archived/192 |
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