Adolescent Work Values and Drug Use in Adulthood: A Longitudinal Prospective Cohort Study

Abstract

Background: Personal values have been considered as a predictor of drug use. Methods: We examined the association between work values in adolescence and drug use in adulthood using 23-year longitudinal data from the Youth Development Study. Results: Partial extrinsic and intrinsic work values predicted cannabis use in the past year after adjusting for sociodemographic variables and alcohol and tobacco use at baseline. A part of intrinsic work values was negatively associated with illicit drug use in the past year. Conclusions: The present study suggested that some personal values might influence future drug use. Investigating the association between personal values and subsequent drug use through personal value theory and self-determination theory could help to understand risk and preventive factors in drug use.

Keywords:

• Work values
• drug use
• prospective cohort study

Acknowledgment

The grant funders had no role in the study design, data collection, and analysis, or paper writing.

Declaration of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This study was partly supported by MEXT KAKENHI Grant Number JP21119003, JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers JP16H06395, 16H06398, and 16K2172.