An examination of the association between early initiation of substance use and interrelated multilevel risk and protective factors among adolescents

Abstract

One of the major goals of drug use prevention programs is to delay the age of onset of substance use. What is called early initiation, usually occurring in adolescents under the age of 15, is a salient predictor of Substance Use Disorders later in adulthood. The causes of early initiation are complex and multifaceted and this has led to the identification of a rich set of risk and protective factors that influence age of onset. Nonetheless, there is little knowledge about the interdependence of these factors in their impact on early initiation. This paper addresses this question by applying Multiple Correspondence Analysis to data on family, community and social risk and protective factors from over 1200 adolescents. We find that community and to a lesser extent social factors are the most clearly associated to early initiation and we compare our results to those obtained from linear regression analyses of the same data that do not incorporate interdependence and find opposite results. We discuss the differences between linear regressions and MCA to evaluate the interplay of risk and protective factors and the implications of our findings for health policy and the design of prevention interventions aimed at delaying age of onset.

Twelve-Plus Years of Secondary and Tertiary Alcohol and Other Drug Use Prevention Programming on a College Campus: Making the Case for Risk-Matched Education

“…This could include recognition of students in recovery, campus recovery community (CRC), and/or events that increase awareness of people in recovery. To this end, Trujillo, Obando, and Trujillo [52] studied the importance of community and positive social factors for adolescents to help delay the onset of substance use. Additionally, CRCs are becoming more and more important for college campuses to provide safe havens for students in recovery who want an education.…”

Age of Onset and Its Related Factors in Cocaine or Methamphetamine Use in Adults from the United States: Results from NHANES 2005–2018

“…While some evidence has suggested an association with previous substance use, personality disorders, and social factors with early age of onset of general substance use [15][16][17][18], few studies have examined factors associated with the age of onset of psychostimulant use specifically. To this end, large publicly available datasets such as the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) are vital in finding potential factors associated with early onset psychostimulant use.…”

Age of onset of adolescent binge drinking is differentially associated with cortical thickness in post‐9/11 adult Veterans

“…The relationships between early‐onset adolescent drinking and later development of AUD (DeWit et al, 2000; Grant & Dawson, 1997; Viner & Taylor, 2007) and psychopathology (Haller & Chassin, 2014; McGue & Iacono, 2005; McGue, Iacono & Krueger, 2006; Viner & Taylor, 2007) are well documented. Early initiation of alcohol use has most often been defined as drinking alcohol by age 14 (DeWit et al, 2000; King & Chassin, 2007; McGue & Iacono, 2005; McGue et al, 2006; Trujillo et al, 2019), and this maps on to the human development phase of “early adolescence” that occurs from age 10 to 14 (McIntosh, Helms, & Smyth, 2003). In fact, problem behaviors such as alcohol misuse before age 15 have been associated with elevated risk for developing adult psychopathology (Fortier et al, 2020; McGue & Iacono, 2005).…”