Trajectories of Substance Use: Onset and Adverse Outcomes Among North American Indigenous Adolescents.

ABSTRACT: North American Indigenous communities experience disproportionately high rates of substance use, abuse, and dependence and their accompanying consequences. This study uses group-based trajectory modeling of past-year substance use (alcohol, marijuana, and cigarettes) with a longitudinal sample of Indigenous adolescents from the northern Midwest and Canada (spanning ages 10-18 years). The early-onset trajectory (36.3%) had more adverse psychosocial difficulties at baseline than the mid-onset group (38.3%); both trajectories were associated with several negative outcomes at the end of the study. The late-onset trajectory (25.3%) did not initiate substance use until later adolescence and had far better outcomes at the last wave of the study. Timing of onset matters. Prevention efforts should

SUBMITTER: Sittner KJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6021023 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature