Patterns of Substance Use, Delinquency, and Risk Factors Among Adolescent Inhalant Users

Abstract

Background: Despite insidious effects, use of inhalant substances by adolescents remains an understudied phenomenon. Objective: This research was designed to identify patterns of past year substance use and delinquency among adolescent inhalant users. Method: The study used a sample of adolescent inhalant users (ages ranged from 12–17 years, n = 7,476) taken from a pooled sample of the 2002 through 2012 National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). Three-step latent class analyses were conducted with past year substance use and delinquency behaviors as class indicators. Demographic and social covariates were included in the analyses. Results: Analyses yielded a six-class solution comprised of classes of users characterized by low substance use/low delinquency, high substance use/low delinquency, low substance use/fighting, cigarettes/alcohol/marijuana, high substance use/high delinquency, and cigarettes/alcohol/ marijuana/opioids/moderate delinquency. Conclusions: Findings provide insight into the taxonomy of adolescent inhalant user heterogeneity, and may inform future efforts at detection and prevention of inhalant use by suggesting warning signs of co-occurring externalizing behaviors and possible indications of underlying internalized issues.

Keywords :

• Inhalants
• volatile substance misuse
• adolescents
• latent class analysis
• substance abuse

THE AUTHORS

Brandon Nakawaki, B.A., M.A., is a Ph.D. student in applied social psychology at Claremont Graduate University. His research interests centrally concern adolescent substance use prevention, with particular interests in improving normative and persuasive school-based interventions and in promoting better trauma-informed prevention and intervention in the child welfare system.

William D. Crano is Oskamp professor of psychology at Claremont Graduate University, where his research is focused on prevention of adolescent substance abuse.

GLOSSARY

• Inhalants: Also characterized as volatile substances, inhalants are defined by the NSDUH dataset to encompass a variety of liquids, sprays, and gases that people sniff or inhale to get high. Examples include, but are not limited to, gasoline, glue, spray paint, and correction fluid.

• Inhalant user: An individual who has used inhalants at least one time in a defined period.