Youth and adolescent substance drug abuse
Question
1. Choose 3 separate articles from 3 separate journals relevant to topic/theme (MUST BE FROM DIFFERENT JOURNALS AND SCHOLARLY SOURCES)
2. These articles may focus on different subjects but must have an underlying connection
3. ARTICLE SUMMARY—do a summation of the major points for each article(EACH SUMMATION SHOULD BE TWO PAGES EACH FOR A TOTAL OF 6 PAGES)Please use 12 pt format and double space this section.
4.ARTICLE REFECTION:
PROFESSIONAL–reflect and then write why this topic is important in the field of the child and youth care; discuss the importance of the articles separately or as a group.
do not use "I" in this reflection
PERSONAL REFLECTION
identify and discuss the 3 most important or relevant things that you learned doing this assignment(please use I in this reflection)
Answer
Student’s Name:
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Contents
Article Summary
Broman, C. (2009) The Longitudinal Impact Of Adolescent Drug Use On Socioeconomic Outcomes In Young Adulthood, Journal Of Child & Adolescent Substance Abuse, 18, 131–143.
This study is an exploration of drug use among adolescents and its impact on socioeconomic outcomes during young adulthood. The study has been done against the backdrop of previous studies on the issue but whose findings have been inconsistent. The National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health, also known as Add Health, a nationally representative survey of US adolescents who are between grades 7 and 12, is the main source of information for this investigation. The data from Add Health was first gathered in 1994-1995, and then follow-ups were done in 1996 and 2001.
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The study was designed in such a way that issues of adolescent health, relationships, health behavior, among other issues, could be investigated. In the collection of data, a multistage, school-based, stratified, cluster sampling design was used for the collection of data in schools. More than 90,000 out of the eligible 120,000 adolescents completed the questionnaires.
The demographic measures of age, race, and sex were used in the investigation. A dummy variable was used in the multivariate analyses in order to represent race for black, white and Latino. The group for adolescents from other different racial-ethnic groups was omitted. The indicators used to measure drug use include the measure of alcohol use, marijuana use, and other illegal drugs (apart from marijuana). An assessment was made on the amount and frequency of the usage of these drugs.
The results of the study indicate that there is a significant relationship between a drug used in adolescence and performance outcomes during young adulthood. However, this has not taken place in the way that one might predict. Alcohol use is strongly associated with greater economic achievement during young adulthood. On the other hand, the study indicated an association of illegal drugs with a decrease in socioeconomic achievement. This relationship is not changed by tests of possible mediators.
This article portrays the ways in which substance use during adolescence is a key factor in economic performance during young adulthood. However, these results appear to differ by both substance and outcome. Alcohol use brings about either a positive or no effect at all on the socioeconomic outcomes during young adulthood. These results are similar to those of prior research. Marijuana use, on the other hand, has either an adverse effect or no effect at all. For adolescents, the drug is associated with low educational achievement and poor receipt of public educational assistance during young adulthood. The article also shows the way in which four potential mediator variables have effects on the socioeconomic outcomes. The most general effects are functional limitations and violent behavior among adolescents.
One of the limitations of the analysis in the article relates to the presumed causal relationship between the dependent and predictor measures. The job measure, for instance, does not allow the researcher to maintain gain full confidence in the apparent causal relationship. However, in the case of the other two dependent measures, things are a bit different. There is also the limitation concern on the basis of the relatively young sample that was used in the research. This limitation made it impossible for the transition to a career as well as other adult roles to be observed. This is because, by the third year, the respondents are only in their early twenties. Moreover, not all mediator variables were measured at the same time.
Nevertheless, in spite of the limitations, the article generated substantial evidence on the impact of drug use among adolescence on socioeconomic outcomes. The most crucial finding that is highlighted in this article is that each socioeconomic outcome is variable, depending only on the type of the substance used.
Ellickson, P. & Martino, S. & Collins, R. (2005) Marijuana Use from Adolescence to Young Adulthood: Multiple Developmental Trajectories and Their Associated Outcomes, Health Psychology, 23(2), 299–307.
In this article, developmental patterns of marijuana use between young adulthood (age 13) and young adulthood (age 23) were investigated using latent growth mixture modeling. A sample of 5,833 individuals was used in the study. The a priori removal of all abstainers resulted in the establishment of 4 trajectory groups: high users, stable light users, steady increasers, and occasional light users.
Early high users are those who decreased from a rather high level of use when they were aged 13 to a moderate level, while stable light users are those who have maintained a low level of use. Steady increases, as the name suggests, are those who have consistently increased their use, while occasional light users are those who started using marijuana at age 14 and continued to use it at low levels after that.
Covariance analysis was carried out in order to compare the trajectory groups on socioeconomic, health outcomes and behavioral aspects at age 29. The analysis revealed that abstainers maintained the most favorable outcomes consistently, whereas high users achieved the least favorable outcomes consistently.
The article contains an insightful background analysis of marijuana, the prevalence of its use among youths and adults. Both the short-term and long-term effects of its use are also highlighted, including poor achievement, low expectations for success in academics, the likelihood of abusing many other drugs and postponement of marriage.
The article raises many research issues on marijuana use, particularly the issue of the average trajectory of use. The heterogeneity that exists in research on developmental trajectories of marijuana use is also highlighted. The sample for the investigation was obtained from the RAND Adolescent/Young Adult Panel Study, a multiyear panel study on a drug prevention program that focused on middle-school children. A panel of 6,527 adolescents drawn from 30 Oregon and California middle schools was used to represent the diverse school and community environments.
The procedure involved the completion of self-administered surveys by Grades 7 to 10 students, as well as email-based surveys to those in the Grade 12, age 23, and age 29 brackets. Over time, the consistency of the respondents’ self-reported use of alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana was assessed. The assessment hinted at a high degree of honesty in the majority of students’ trends regarding their substance use.
Marijuana use was measured using a pair of items corresponding to each of the six assessments. In each measurement, participants were required to report the number of times and days within the past year that they had used marijuana. On the basis of this, a five-point index for the marijuana use frequency was made. The outcome measure successfully distinguished all participants on the basis of the frequency of marijuana use over the past year. The demographic characteristics considered included range, gender, and age.
Psychosocial trends and democratic characteristics were determined among all growth trajectory classes. The participants were assigned to the trajectory classes in which they had the highest possibility of membership before being considered for comparison in terms of different demographic characteristics.
In the discussion section, the authors indicated that the current study is the first one to establish multiple marijuana use trajectories ranging from adolescence to emerging adulthood. The study is also the first one to link the trajectories with all the predicted outcomes five years later. One of the important findings to come of the article is on the convergence of three out of the four trajectories by the age of 23. Other findings include the steady rise in marijuana use among one of the subsets of users, a significant association between use of marijuana and negative outcomes by age 29, and the fact that all the earliest initiators never depended on their marijuana involvement during as well as after high school.
Rohde, P., Lewinsohn, P. Seeley, J. (2007) Psychosocial Functioning of Adults who Experienced Substance Use Disorders as Adolescents, Psychologically Addictive Behavior, 21(2), 155–164.
The authors of this article sought to determine whether Substance Use Disorder (SUD) prior to age 19 is associated with the functioning of adults by the time they are age 30. An assessment was made on 773 individuals, twice when they were adolescents, and when they were aged 24 and 30. Out of the 14 measures undertaken, 8 were associated with SUD during adolescents: suicide attempt, education, income, unemployment, risky sexual behavior, stressful life events, coping and global adjustment.
In the controlled assessment for adolescent comorbidity, functioning, and adult SUD, unemployment and education maintained the association, while three variables emerged as highly significant: being currently married, being a parent, and decreased life satisfaction. The article also highlights the SUD’s association with numerous function-related difficulties at age 30, most of which are related to the recurrence of SUD, functioning problems that already manifest themselves during adolescence, and comorbid adolescent disorders.
The article clearly explains the roles that adolescents face as they enter into adulthood: launching a career, developing romantic relationships, getting married, entering into parenthood, developing a social support system, maintain excellent physical health. Upon highlighting such issues, it becomes easy for the possible influence of SUD on the level of difficulty to accomplish all these tasks to be established.
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The distinguishing characteristics that are used in this study include a rigorous diagnosis of SUD as well as other psychiatric disorders, a large community sample, a broad range of the functioning indices that are examined, and repeated assessments during different developmental periods.
In this article, an analysis of participants, who were randomly selected, is made, while the psychosocial measures that were administered to each of the participants in the four assessments are described. In some of the assessments, a bias emerged due to attrition between the adolescents who participated and those who did not. The attrition was associated with the small household number, low socioeconomic status, current and lifetime cigarette use, past SUD in males, and past disruptive behavior disorders.
The article ends with the conclusion that there is an association between experiencing SUD during adolescence and several functioning difficulties that extend to age 30. However, the authors observe, some exceptions arise in this regard. Nonetheless, with the exception of occupational and academic functioning, it is highly unlikely that these differences should be regarded as the direct ‘consequences’ of SUD experienced during adolescence.
Article Refection
All the articles highlight issues that are crucial for adolescents to refer to, particularly those who are entering into young adulthood, with regard to issues of drug and substance abuse. The articles make valuable contributions on the effects of adolescent substance abuse on functioning ability during young adulthood. The first article contains valuable information on how adolescent drug use influences socioeconomic outcomes during young adulthood. The study contributes literature in a discourse whose findings have in the past tended to be inconsistent.
The second article is useful in the field of youth care because of the way in which it focuses on marijuana use during adolescence and its associated outcomes during young adulthood. From this study, researchers in this field can find out information on how to categorize marijuana abusers into different groups, thereby making it easy for in-depth studies to be carried out.
Personal Reflection
I learned three main things while doing this paper. The first one is that there is an intricate relationship between substance abuse during adolescence and socioeconomic outcomes during early adulthood. In this regard, I learned about the inconsistent findings that different researchers have come up with relating to the way in which different levels of adolescent substance abuse determine the extent of adverse socioeconomic outcomes during early adulthood.
Secondly, I learned that in studies involving youth and adolescent substance abuse, there are many variables and demographics to consider, including sex and gender. Similarly, there is a need for categorizations of substance users into groups in order to make the research process easy to undertake.
Thirdly, I found out that it is rather difficult to tell the difference between the effects of adolescence SUD and those of other normal drug and substance abuse behaviors as far as a reference to the socioeconomic outcomes during early adulthood is concerned. Meanwhile, the adolescent substance use disorder, as I learned, has severe socioeconomic outcomes for adults who are as old as 30 years.
References
Broman, C. (2009) The Longitudinal Impact Of Adolescent Drug Use On Socioeconomic Outcomes In Young Adulthood, Journal Of Child & Adolescent Substance Abuse, 18, 131–143.
Ellickson, P. & Martino, S. & Collins, R. (2005) Marijuana Use from Adolescence to Young Adulthood: Multiple Developmental Trajectories and Their Associated Outcomes, Health Psychology, 23(2), 299–307.
Rohde, P., Lewinsohn, P. Seeley, J. (2007) Psychosocial Functioning of Adults who Experienced Substance Use Disorders as Adolescents, Psychologically Addictive Behavior, 21(2), 155–164.
