Trajectories of Substance Use and Well-being in Early and Middle Adolescence Shaped by Social Connectedness.

Increasing substance use and decreasing well-being are typical in adolescence, yet how social contexts shape disparate development during this time is less well-understood. A latent growth class analysis was conducted that identified groups of early (N = 706; Agem = 12.20) and middle (N = 666; Agem = 14.38) adolescents distinguished by rates of substance use and well-being over three years. In both cohorts, the largest group reported low substance use and high well-being, with a smaller group exhibiting maladaptive trajectories for both substance use and well-being. Two additional groups were identified during middle adolescence characterized by either low well-being or high substance use. Family connectedness was a protective factor, while high peer connectedness was a risk factor for substance-use groups and low peer connectedness for languishing.

Changes in positive and negative peer influences and depressive symptoms from adolescence to young adulthood.

INTRODUCTION: Peers are believed to continue as prominent sources of influence for young adults. However, having peers who use alcohol and drugs is associated with depressive symptoms in young adults and research on the effects of having peers who model positive activities beyond adolescence is scarce. METHOD: In this 10-year study of 644 Canadian youth (52% female), we used multilevel modeling to examine the effects of within-person and between-person differences in the interplay of peer behaviours and changes in depressive symptoms between ages 14 and 25. Data were collected via face-to-face interviews and surveys for private topics. RESULTS: Youth with close friends who used drugs and alcohol consistently reported more depressive symptoms at each age, whereas having friends who engaged in positive activities was associated with fewer depressive symptoms, especially during adolescence. Moreover, at times when youth had more substance-using peers than usual (within person variation), they also reported more symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Substance-using peer contexts convey both short- and long-term risks for depressive symptoms. However, the protective effects of having peers who are engaged in positive activities, while generally protective, may be reduced in young adulthood. It is possible that older youth withdraw from peers and activities as their depression worsens, and prosocial activities become less supervised by parents, more optional, and more expensive.

The Relationship Between Parent Drinking and Adolescent Drinking: Differences for Mothers and Fathers and Boys and Girls.

BACKGROUND: Gender differences in the relationship between parent drinking and adolescent drinking are poorly understood. As parental alcohol use is a primary early exposure to alcohol for adolescents, it is important to understand how consequences may differ for adolescent males and females. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this paper was to examine gender differences in the relationship between mother's and father's heavy episodic drinking, and its combination, and adolescent drinking. METHODS: The sample included 2,800 14-15 year olds (48.9% female) living in two-parent households from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. The adolescent outcome measure was having had an alcoholic drink in the past year. Mothers and fathers self-reported their frequency of heavy episodic drinking. Covariates included parents' education, smoking, non-English-speaking background, and symptoms of psychological distress. Logistic regression was used to examine the hypotheses. RESULTS: After adjustment for covariates, both mothers' and fathers' heavy episodic drinking significantly increased the likelihood of adolescent drinking. Moreover, fathers' heavy drinking was more strongly related to adolescent drinking for girls. However, there were no gender differences in the relationship between mothers' drinking and adolescent drinking, and the combination of mothers' and fathers' drinking was not more risky than heavy drinking in either parent alone. CONCLUSIONS: Parent heavy episodic drinking is a risk factor for adolescent drinking, after controlling for potential confounding variables. Results suggest that girls may be especially vulnerable to parent heavy drinking in early adolescence. This variation should be considered in the design and evaluation of family-based interventions to prevent adolescent drinking.

Pathways to romantic relational aggression through adolescent peer aggression and heavy episodic drinking.

Adolescent peer aggression is a well-established correlate of romantic relational aggression; however, the mechanisms underlying this association are unclear. Heavy episodic drinking (or "binge" alcohol use) was examined as both a prior and concurrent mediator of this link in a sample of 282 12-18 year old interviewed four times over 6 years. Path analyses indicated that early peer relational and physical aggression each uniquely predicted later romantic relational aggression. Concurrent heavy episodic drinking fully mediated this effect for peer physical aggression only. These findings highlight two important mechanisms by which peer aggression may increase the risk of later romantic relational aggression: a direct pathway from peer relational aggression to romantic relational aggression and an indirect pathway through peer physical aggression and concurrent heavy episodic drinking. Prevention programs targeting romantic relational aggression in adolescence and young adulthood may benefit from interventions that target multiple domains of risky behavior, including the heavy concurrent use of alcohol. Aggr. Behav. 42:563-576, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The relationship of higher education to substance use trajectories: variations as a function of timing of enrollment.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the association between time to enrollment into postsecondary education and trajectories of heavy episodic drinking (HED) and marijuana use using a prospective longitudinal study. METHOD: Participants included 391 postsecondary students (55% female) drawn from the Victoria Healthy Youth Survey, a five-wave, multi-cohort sample interviewed biennially between 2003 and 2011. Using piecewise latent growth modeling, we compared changes in the trajectories of HED and marijuana use before and after postsecondary enrollment across three groups of young adults: (a) direct entrants (enrolled directly out of high school), (b) gap entrants (took a year off), and (c) delayed entrants (took longer than a year off). RESULTS: Heavy drinking increased after enrollment for direct entrants and gap entrants and decreased for delayed entrants. Marijuana use increased after enrollment for direct entrants, and decreased for gap entrants and delayed entrants. Yet, overall levels of marijuana use were significantly higher among the gap and delay entrants over time compared with direct entrants. Group differences in heavy drinking appeared to reflect age-related changes in drinking patterns. However, differences in marijuana use may reflect pre-existing inequities in access to higher education across groups. CONCLUSIONS: The association between postsecondary education and increased substance use may be limited to students who enroll at a postsecondary institution directly out of high school. However, students who delay enrollment have higher levels of substance use before enrollment, as well as lower high school grades and socioeconomic status compared with direct entrants, and may be particularly vulnerable to long-term substance use problems and degree noncompletion.

Irritable and defiant sub-dimensions of ODD: their stability and prediction of internalizing symptoms and conduct problems from adolescence to young adulthood.

Emerging research has identified sub-dimensions of oppositional defiant disorder - irritability and defiance - that differentially predict internalizing and externalizing symptoms in preschoolers, children, and adolescents. Using a theoretical approach and confirmatory factor analyses to distinguish between irritability and defiance, we investigate the associations among these dimensions and internalizing (anxiety and depression) and externalizing problems (conduct problems) within and across time in a community-based sample of 662 youth (342 females) spanning ages 12 to 18 years old at baseline. On average, irritability was stable across assessment points and defiance declined. Within time, associations of irritability with internalizing were consistently stronger than associations of irritability with conduct problems. Defiance was similarly associated within time with both internalizing and conduct problems in mid-adolescence, but was more highly related to internalizing than to conduct problems by early adulthood (ages 18 to 25). Over time, increasing irritability was related to changes in both internalizing and conduct problems; whereas increases in defiance predicted increases in conduct problems more strongly than internalizing symptoms. Increases in both internalizing and conduct problems were also associated with subsequent increases in both irritability and defiance. Sex differences in these associations were not significant.

Trajectories of marijuana use in youth ages 15-25: implications for postsecondary education experiences.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined associations between longitudinal trajectories of marijuana use from adolescence to young adulthood and postsecondary education (PSE) experiences. Outcomes examined included the type of PSE undertaken, the timing of enrollment, and the likelihood of dropping out. METHOD: Participants (N = 632; 332 females) were from the Victoria Healthy Youth Survey, a five-wave multicohort study of young people interviewed biennially between 2003 and 2011. Latent class growth analysis was used to identify distinct trajectories of the frequency of marijuana use from ages 15 to 25. Logistic regression analyses evaluated class membership as a predictor of the three PSE outcomes, with sex, maternal education, family structure, high school grades, and conduct problems controlled for. RESULTS: Three trajectory groups of marijuana use were identified: abstainers (31%), occasional users (44%), and frequent users (25%). Compared with abstainers, frequent users had the lowest high school grades and the most conduct problems and were least likely to enroll in PSE, especially in a university. Occasional users did not differ from abstainers on high school grades or conduct problems and were no less likely than abstainers to enroll in PSE. However, they delayed enrollment longer and were more likely to drop out of PSE. CONCLUSIONS: Frequent marijuana use from adolescence to young adulthood may close off opportunities for entering PSE, whereas occasional use may create delays in starting and finishing PSE among less at-risk young people. The mechanisms underlying associations between marijuana use and educational difficulties during emerging adulthood as well as adolescence need to be better understood.

Association among different measures of alcohol use across adolescence and emerging adulthood.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The use of alterative alcohol indices in developmental research may generate conflicting findings in the literature. This study examined the longitudinal associations among four indices of alcohol involvement from ages 15 to 25 years and examined their concurrent associations with alcohol-related problems in emerging adulthood. DESIGN: Data are from the Victoria Healthy Youth Survey, a five-wave multi-cohort study conducted biennially in Victoria, Canada between 2003 and 2011. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: This study included a subsample of 637 randomly recruited Canadian adolescents, aged 15-25 years. MEASUREMENTS: Four indices of alcohol use were compared using multivariate piecewise growth modeling: frequency, usual quantity, heavy episodic drinking and volume. FINDINGS: All indices increased on average from ages 15 to 21, peaked at approximately age 21, and gradually declined from ages 21 to 25. Levels of use at age 21 were highly correlated across indices (r = 0.63-0.94, P < 0.001), but correlations among rates of change varied between pairs of indices. Heavy episodic drinking and volume had the strongest correlations over time (r = 0.64-0.81, P < 0.001) and accounted for the greatest variance in alcohol use disorder symptoms (R(2) = 0.35) and social and health consequences (R(2) = 16) in emerging adulthood. Frequency and quantity had the weakest associations during adolescence (r = 0.49, P = 0.001) and were uncorrelated during emerging adulthood (r = 0.23, P = 0.09). CONCLUSIONS: Among Canadian youth aged 15-25 years, measures of heavy episodic drinking and volume are the most strongly correlated over time and account for greater variance in alcohol-related problems in emerging adulthood than either frequency or quantity alone.

The Effect of Types of Postsecondary Education on Drinking: Does Age of Enrollment Matter?

Using longitudinal data from early adolescence through young adulthood, this study examined the association between different types of postsecondary education (PSE), age of enrollment in PSE, and the trajectory of alcohol use for Canadian young adults (N = 521). Trajectories of alcohol use were compared across young adults at 2-year colleges, 4-year universities, transfer programs (started at a 2-year college and transferred to a 4-year university), and terminal high school graduates. While initial findings revealed significant differences in the drinking trajectories of 2-year college students and 4-year university students, all differences were accounted for by variability in the age of enrollment. Overall, there were few differences in heavy drinking across types of institutions, but younger students increased their alcohol use more than older students following enrollment. However, young adults who do not attend PSE may be at greatest risk for heavy drinking over time.