Impact of hurricane Rita on adolescent substance use.
Psychiatry
; 72(3): 222-37, 2009.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-19821646
ABSTRACT
Little systematic research attention has been devoted to the impact of natural disasters on adolescent substance use. The present study examined relationships among exposure to Hurricane Rita, post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptoms, and changes in adolescent substance use from 13 months pre-disaster to seven and 19 months post-disaster. Subjects were 280 high school students in southwestern Louisiana who participated in a drug abuse prevention intervention trial prior to the hurricane. Two-thirds of participants were female and 68% were white. Students completed surveys at baseline (13 months pre-hurricane) and two follow-ups (seven and 19 months post-hurricane). Results indicated a positive bivariate relationship between PTS symptoms, assessed at 7 months post-hurricane, and increases in alcohol (p < .05) and marijuana use (p < .10) from baseline to the 7 months post-hurricane follow-up. When these associations were examined collectively with other hurricane-related predictors in multivariate regression models, PTS symptoms did not predict increases in substance use. However, objective exposure to the hurricane predicted increases in marijuana use, and post-hurricane negative life events predicted increases in all three types of substance use (ps < .10). These findings suggest that increased substance use may be one of the behaviors that adolescents exhibit in reaction to exposure to hurricanes.
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Transtornos de Estresse Pós-Traumáticos
/
Comportamento do Adolescente
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Transtornos Relacionados ao Uso de Substâncias
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Tempestades Ciclônicas
Tipo de estudo:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Observational_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Adolescent
/
Female
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Humans
/
Male
País/Região como assunto:
America do norte
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Psychiatry
Ano de publicação:
2009
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Estados Unidos