Health and Developmental Consequences of Youth Drug Abuse

Research Findings from May, 2001 Director's Report

This section lists selected summaries from NIDA funded research projects that investigate the developmental implications of drug use. The summaries provided were selected from recent issues of the Director's Report to the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse. For a more comprehensive listing of NIDA funded projects see the Director's Report.

Predictors of Early High School Dropout

This study compared the adequacy of 5 theories for predicting dropping out of high school before grade 10. These theories include full mediation by academic achievement and direct effects related to general deviance, deviant affiliations, family socialization, and structural strains. Models were used to test these theories on prospective data from an ethnically diverse urban sample. Poor academic achievement mediated the effect of all independent factors, although general deviance, bonding to antisocial peers, and socioeconomic status also retained direct effects on dropping out. Therefore, none of the theories were fully adequate to explain the data, although partial support was obtained for each theory. Battin-Pearson, S., Newcomb, M.D., Abbott, R.D., Hill, K.G., Catalano, R.F., and Hawkins, J. D. Predictors of Early High School Dropout: A Test of Five Theories. J. Educational Psychology 92(3), pp. 568-582, 2000.

Male Adolescent Friendships and Aggression Toward Female Partners

Deviancy training was examined as a risk factor for physical and psychological aggression toward a female partner among boys and young men in the Oregon Youth Study. Hostile talk about women during videotaped male friendship interactions was hypothesized to indicate a process by which aggression toward women is reinforced within male peer networks with both antisocial behavior and hostile talk being predicted to be associated with later aggression toward a female partner. Prospective developmental models were tested from 9-20 years of age through young adulthood. Findings indicated that the relation of deviant peer association in adolescence and later aggression toward a partner was mediated by antisocial behavior; observed hostile talk about women with male peers explained additional variance in aggression toward a partner. Aggression Toward Female Partners by At-Risk Young Men: The Contribution of Male Adolescent Friendships. Capaldi, D.M., Dishion, T.J., Stoolmiller, M., and Yoerger, K. Dev. Psych., 37(1), pp. 61-73, 2000.

Methods to Decrease Attrition in Longitudinal Studies with Adolescents

This article presents a summary of methods to decrease attrition in longitudinal school-based studies conducted with adolescents beginning junior high schools or middle schools. These include collection of contact information about students, additional days to collect data from absentee students, data collection in new high schools once students graduate from junior high schools or middle schools, sending questionnaires by mail, and conducting telephone or home interviews. Epstein, J.A. and Botvin, G.J. Methods to Decrease Attrition in Longitudinal Studies with Adolescents. Psychological Reports, 87 (1), pp. 139-140, 2000.

Role of Conduct Disorder in Neuropsychological Deficits in Female Adolescents with Substance Use Disorder

CEDAR-affiliated researchers sought to determine whether neuropsychological deficits in female adolescents are more closely related to a diagnosis of a substance use disorder (SUD) or a conduct disorder (CD). Subjects were 470 female adolescents between the ages of 14 and 18 years. They were categorized into one of four groups: (1) SUD-only (n =63), (2) CD-only (n = 58), (3) SUD+CD (n = 239) and (4) normal control (n = 110). The groups were compared on multiple neuropsychological measures covering four cognitive domains: general intelligence, executive functioning, language competence and academic achievement. The findings were consistent across all measures. Multivariate analyses of variance revealed significant group differences for all four neuropsychological domains. Univariate tests indicated that the two CD groups equally exhibited the poorest performance of all four groups on nearly all measures of intelligence, executive functioning, language competence and academic achievement. The SUD-only group performed better than the two CD groups but not as well as the control group. Socioeconomic status and chronological age were statistically controlled for in all analyses. These findings suggest that the neuropsychological deficits in this sample of female adolescents with SUD are more closely related to CD, or antisociality in general, than to SUD. Future studies assessing the neuropsychological functioning of persons with SUD should make efforts to measure comorbid antisociality. Giancola, P.R. and Mezzich, A.C. Neuropsychological Deficits in Female Adolescents with a Substance Use Disorder: Better Accounted for by Conduct Disorder? Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 61(6), pp. 809-817, 2000.

Childhood Depression and Adult Personality Disorder

This study extends previous findings of the risks posed by childhood major depressive disorder and other psychopathological features for later personality disorder (PD) in a random sample of 551 youths. Self-reports and mother reports were used to evaluate DSM-III-R (Axes I and II) psychiatric disorders at mean ages of 12.7, 15.2, and 21.1 years. Logistic regression was used to examine the independent effects of major depressive disorder in childhood or adolescence on 10 PDs in young adulthood. Results indicate that the odds of dependent, antisocial, passive-aggressive, and histrionic PDs increased by more than 13, 10, 7, and 3 times, respectively, given prior major depressive disorder. Those effects were independent of age, sex, disadvantaged socioeconomic status, a history of child maltreatment, nonintact family status, parental conflict, preexisting PD in adolescence, and other childhood or adolescent Axis I psychopathological features, including disruptive and anxiety disorders. In addition, odds of schizoid and narcissistic PD increased by almost 6 times and odds of antisocial PD increased by almost 5 times given a prior disruptive disorder, and odds of paranoid PD increased by 4 times given a prior anxiety disorder. Personality disorders may represent alternative pathways of continuity for major depressive disorder and other Axis I disorders across the child-adult transition. Kasen, S., Cohen, P., Skodol, A.E., Johnson, J.G., Smailes, E. and Brook, J.S. Childhood Depression and Adult Personality Disorder: Alternative Pathways of Continuity. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry, 58(3), pp. 231-236, 2001.