School Victimization and Substance Use among Adolescents in California

Abstract

Substance use and violence co-occur among adolescents. However, the extant literature focuses on the substance use behaviors of perpetrators of violence and not on victims. This study identifies patterns of school victimization and substance use and how they co-occur. The California Healthy Kids Survey was used to identify latent classes/clusters of school victimization patterns and lifetime and frequency of recent (past month) alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use (N =419,698). Demographic characteristics (age, gender, and race/ethnicity) were included as predictors of latent class membership. Analyses revealed four latent classes of school victimization: low victimization (44.4 %), moderate victimization (22.3 %), verbal/relational victimization (20.8 %), and high victimization (with physical threats; 12.5 %). There were also four classes of substance use: non-users (58.5 %), alcohol experimenters (some recent alcohol use; 25.8 %), mild poly-substance users (lifetime use of all substances with few days of recent use; 9.1 %), and frequent poly-substance users (used all substances several times in the past month; 6.5 %). Those in the high victimization class were twice as likely to be frequent poly-substance users, and mild poly-substance use was most salient for those in the verbal victimization class. Few studies have explored latent patterns of substance use and violence victimization concurrently. The findings indicate substantial heterogeneity in victimization and substance use among youth in California schools with implications for targeted and tailored interventions. Understanding how certain types of victimization are associated with particular patterns of substance use will provide schools with opportunities to screen for concurrent behavioral health problems among youth.

Trends in typologies of concurrent alcohol, marijuana, and cigarette use among US adolescents: An ecological examination by sex and race/ethnicity

“…We found that Hispanic and Asian youth were less likely to be concurrent users of some typologies than White adolescents (A+C and A+M+C) and null effects for the other typologies (A+M, M+C). These findings contradict previous research suggesting that Hispanic youth are at higher risk for concurrent use than their White peers (Connell et al, 2009; Gilreath et al, 2014; Gilreath et al, 2015), as well as research suggesting Asian youth are at lower risk for A+M and M+C than Whites and other racial/ethnic groups (Lanza et al, 2010; Ramo et al, 2012). Native American youth were found not to differ from Whites on use of any concurrent substance-use typology.…”

“…In general, male adolescents report higher rates of daily alcohol, marijuana, and cigarette use than female adolescents (Lanza et al, 2015; Miech et al, 2016). As for concurrent use, the most consistent sex effect has been found for occasional concurrent users (i.e., lifetime users of alcohol, marijuana and cigarettes, with little recent concurrent use), who are more likely to be female than male (Connell et al, 2010; Gilreath et al, 2014; Gilreath et al, 2015). However, findings have been mixed regarding sex differences in the frequent/recent use of alcohol, marijuana and cigarettes.…”

“…However, findings have been mixed regarding sex differences in the frequent/recent use of alcohol, marijuana and cigarettes. Gilreath et al (2014) and Gilreath et al (2015) found that males were more likely to be frequent/current users of A+M+C than females, whereas Connell et al (2010) found the opposite sex effect. Sex differences have also been equivocal regarding M+C use (Ramo et al, 2012); whereas some studies have found that male adolescents are more likely to be M+C users than females (Guxens et al, 2007; Victoir et al, 2007), others have found the opposite sex effect (Lanza et al, 2015; Suris et al, 2007), or no sex effect (Aung et al, 2004).…”

“…Some researchers have noted no difference in substance use typology between White and Hispanic adolescents (Lanza et al, 2010), whereas several others have suggested that Hispanic youth are more likely to be concurrent substance users than Whites (Connell et al, 2009; Gilreath et al, 2014; Gilreath et al, 2015). Among African American adolescents, several studies have documented a lower prevalence of concurrent substance use compared to White adolescents (Connell et al, 2009; Gilreath et al, 2015; Lanza et al, 2010; Tomczyk et al, 2016).…”

A Comparison of Goal Setting and Reputational Orientations of African Adolescents From Refugee Backgrounds in Intensive English Centers and Mainstream Secondary School Classrooms

“…Participants respond on a 5 point scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The CHKS has excellent psychometric properties (Gilreath, Astor, Estrada, Johnson, Benbenishty, & Unger, 2014;Sharkey, You, & Schnoebelen, 2008).…”