Risky Drinking in Adolescents and Emerging Adults: Differences between Individuals Using Alcohol Only versus Polysubstances

Abstract

Background

Factors related to risky drinking (e.g., motives, protective behavioral strategies [PBS]) may vary between youth who engage in polysubstance use compared to those who consume alcohol only. We examined differences in factors among youth who consume alcohol only compared to alcohol with other substances (i.e., polysubstance use), and correlates associated with risky drinking between the groups.

Methods

Participants (N = 955; ages 16-24; 54.5% female) who reported recent risky drinking completed measures of alcohol/substance use, alcohol-related consequences, drinking motives, alcohol PBS, mental health symptoms, and emotion dysregulation. Participants were in the polysubstance group if they reported using at least one other substance (e.g., cannabis, stimulants) in addition to alcohol in the past three months. Chi-square and t-tests examined differences between the two groups and multiple regression analyses examined correlates of risky drinking.

Results

Most participants (70.4%, n = 672) reported polysubstance use; these individuals engaged in riskier patterns of drinking, experienced more alcohol-related consequences, used fewer PBS, had stronger drinking motives (enhancement, social, coping), endorsed more mental health symptoms, and reported more emotion dysregulation. Regression models showed that emotion dysregulation significantly associated with risky drinking in the alcohol-only group; conformity and coping motives, alcohol PBS, and anxiety symptoms significantly associated with risky drinking in the polysubstance group.

Conclusions

Among risky drinking youth, results indicated youth engaging in polysubstance use have greater comorbidities and individual-level factors associated with risky drinking than youth who consume alcohol only. These findings may inform the tailoring of interventions for individuals who engage in risky drinking and polysubstance use.

Keywords:

• Risky alcohol use
• polysubstance use
• adolescents
• emerging adults

Disclosure statement

The authors do not have any personal financial interests related to this manuscript, with two exceptions: MAW is a minor shareholder in Facebook and has a conflict-of-interest plan approved by the University of Michigan. SDY has received an unrestricted gift from Facebook, on file with the University of California, Irvine.

Trial registration

Data reported here are from the baseline (pre-intervention) phase of a RCT.

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02809586.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) under grant number R01AA024175. ARF’s time was funded by NIAAA T32AA007477 and LNC’s time was funded by NIAAA K23AA028232.