A Prospective Study on the Influence of Scholastic Factors on the Prevalence and Initiation of Illicit Drug Misuse in Adolescence

Abstract

Background: This study aimed to prospectively investigate the scholastic factors related to illicit drug misuse (IDM) and the initiation of IDM among older adolescents from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Methods: This 2-year prospective study included 436 participants (202 females), who were an average of 16 years old at the beginning of the study (baseline). The participants were tested at baseline and follow-up (20 months later). The predictors included variables of scholastic-achievement (grade point average, school absences, unexcused absences and behavioral grade). The criteria were: (i) IDM at baseline; (ii) IDM at follow-up; and (iii) initiation of IDM over the study course. Results: Logistic regression indicated increased odds of IDM in adolescents who were more frequent absent from school (baseline: Odds Ratio (OR): 3.73, 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 2.12–6.57; follow-up: OR: 2.91, 95% CI: 1.90–4.65). The lower grade point average and more unexcused absences were evidenced for adolescents who consumed drugs on follow-up (OR: 1.67, 95% CI: 1.11–2.51; OR: 1.74, 95% CI: 1.30–2.32 for grade point average and unexcused absences, respectively). Initiation of IDM was predicted by frequent absences from school (OR: 2.2, 95% CI: 1.3–3.8), and lower behavioral grades (OR: 1.9, 95% CI: 1.2–3.3). Conclusions: The findings confirmed strong correlations between scholastic failure and IDM. Absences from school and lower behavioral grades at baseline were predictive of the initiation of IDM in older adolescents.

Are Sports-Related Factors Correlated to the Prevalence and Initiation of Illicit Drug Misuse in Adolescence? Prospective Study in Older Adolescents

“…Baseline and follow-up testing were done only once, and consequently study did not include adolescents who were not at school on a testing day. The same protocol of sampling and testing was followed in previous cross-sectional studies that have examined the problem of substance use and misuse in adolescents from the territory [11, 29, 34, 35], while one very recent study prospectively examined the same sample of participants in order to evidence the relationship between scholastic variables and illicit drug misuse [6]. Therefore, authors are of the opinion that the results obtained herein may be objectively compared with those previously reported [6, 11, 29, 34, 35].…”

“…Although most teens do not escalate from so-called “trying drugs” to developing addictive behaviors, even experimenting with illicit drugs is a problem. Namely, even irregular IDM can result in serious consequences (i.e., unsafe sex, intoxicated driving, injecting, and violent behavior), and therefore even the rare IDM can pose a serious health-related (i.e., HIV, hepatitis-C) and social-related (i.e., traffic accidents, violence) risk [6–8]. Although serious social- and health-related problems are related to consumption of other substances and not solely to IDM, the fact is that the consumption of other substances (i.e., alcohol and tobacco products) is at least partially legal in most countries.…”

“…Indeed, while some associations may be intuitively interpreted, the cross-sectional approach did not allow more accurate identification of the cause-effect relationships between sport factors and substance misuse [29, 35]. This problem is additionally highlighted in more recent studies where authors prospectively investigated different predictors of substance use and misuse in adolescence and clearly evidenced causality between variables [6, 36, 37]. Therefore, this study aimed to prospectively investigate the relationship between sport factors (predictors) and the IDM (outcome) in 16- to 18-year-old adolescents from B&H. Apart from evidencing the associations between the predictors and the outcome at study baseline (at the age of 16) and follow-up (at the age of 18), we aimed to evaluate the influence of the observed predictors on the initiation of IDM in the observed period (i.e., between 16 and 18 years of age).…”

Substance Abuse and Public Health: A Multilevel Perspective and Multiple Responses

“…The sample comprised 4590 college students who were recruited by stratified random sampling procedures proportionately in 82 colleges in South Korea. There are other empirical studies in this special issue that similarly used a representative sample [21,24,31,34]. However, using quantitative methods to survey empirically the attitudes and behaviors of certain health and human service professional groups is less likely to require a representative sample, and so it is necessary to use non-probabilistic sampling procedures such as quota, purposive or snowballing sampling designs.…”

“…Substances may also act as a comforting "soul mate" to help users evade hard realities [19,20]. In this special issue, Zubak et al [21] examined the effects of scholastic factors-for example, grade point averages, school and other unexcused absences and poor behavior-in relation to illicit drug misuse (IDM) and its initiation among adolescents in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Jee et al [22] investigated the trajectories of different smoking groups of young South Korean male adults and the implication of the habit in their atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) in middle age.…”