Substance Use in Adolescence and Early Adulthood: Which Best Predicts Violence in Early Adulthood?

Abstract

Waves I and III of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) were used to test the contributions of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, cocaine, LSD, PCP, and other illicit drugs to violence in early adulthood (e.g., took part in a gang fight, pulled a knife or gun, used a weapon in a fight, used a weapon to get something). The two main hypotheses were that well-known, non-substance abuse risk factors for violence in adolescence (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, poverty, adolescent violence, school failure) would continue to elevate the risk for violence in early adulthood. Furthermore, substance use in early adulthood would eclipse the contribution of substance use in adolescence, thus increasing the risk for early adult violence. Results supported both hypotheses. Substance use in adolescence may not have a lasting influence on adult violence. In addition, the risk for early adult violence may be subject to contemporaneous influences of substance use as well as historical and contemporaneous non-substance use risk factors.

KEYWORDS:

• adolescence
• early adulthood
• substance use
• violence

Acknowledgments

This research uses data from Add Health, a program project designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris and funded by Grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 17 other agencies. Special acknowledgment is due to Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Persons interested in obtaining data files from Add Health should contact Add Health, Carolina Population Center, 123 W. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516-2524, USA ([email protected]). No direct support was received from Grant P01-HD31921.

Grant sponsor: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; Grant number: P01-HD31921.

Notes

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