Predictors of Drug Use Among South African Adolescents

Overview

Journal J Adolesc Health

Publisher Elsevier

Specialty Pediatrics

Date 2006 Jan 3

PMID 16387245

Citations 31

Authors

Judith S Brook

Neo K Morojele

Kerstin Pahl

David W Brook

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Purpose: To determine the association of frequency of illegal drug use with five groups of factors: environmental stressors, parental drug use, parental child rearing, peer drug use, and adolescent personal attributes.

Methods: 1468 male (45%) and female (55%) adolescents, aged 12 to 17 years (mean 14.76, SD 1.51), were interviewed at home in Durban and Capetown, South Africa. Independent measures assessed environmental stressors, parental child rearing, parental drug use, peer drug use, and adolescent personal attributes. The dependent variable was the adolescents' frequency of illegal drug use.

Results: Regression analyses showed that personal attributes and peer substance use explained the largest percentage of the variance in the adolescents' frequency of illegal drug use. In addition, both of the parental factors and the environmental stressors contributed to the explained variance in adolescent drug use above and beyond the two more proximal domains at a statistically significant level.

Conclusions: Knowing the contribution of more proximal vs. more distal risk factors for illegal drug use is useful for prioritizing targets for interventions. Targeting changes in the more proximal predictors (e.g., adolescent personal attributes) may be more effective as well as more feasible than trying to produce changes in the more distal factors, such as environmental stressors.

Citing Articles

Predictors of drug and substance abuse among school-going adolescents living in drug hotspot in Malaysia.

Ismail R, Shafurdin N, Shukor M, Mohammed Nawi A, Abdul Manaf M, Ibrahim N PLoS One. 2024; 19(6):e0305460.

PMID: 38875293 PMC: 11178186. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0305460.

Prevalence and predictors of lifetime amphetamine use among in-school adolescents in Sierra Leone.

Osborne A, Aboagye R, Olorunsaiye C, James P, Bangura C, Seidu A BMJ Open. 2024; 14(3):e080225.

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Parental drug use disorders and youth psychopathology: Meta-analytic review.

Anderson A, Siciliano R, Pillai A, Jiang W, Compas B Drug Alcohol Depend. 2023; 244:109793.

PMID: 36758372 PMC: 10015502. DOI: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2023.109793.

Socio-demographic and social support factors related to substance use in South African in-school adolescents: Insights from the Girls Achieve Power (GAP Year) trial in three peri-urban settings.

Gordon K, Kutywayo A, Frade S, Naidoo N, Mullick S Gates Open Res. 2022; 5:154.

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Contextual influences of illicit adolescent marijuana cultivation and trading in the Inqguza Hill local municipality of South Africa: implications for public health policy.

Manu E, Douglas M, Ntsaba M Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy. 2021; 16(1):6.

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