Mediating pathways from childhood ADHD to adolescent tobacco and marijuana problems: roles of peer impairment, internalizing, adolescent ADHD symptoms, and gender.

ABSTRACT:

Background

We examined whether increased risk for adolescent tobacco and marijuana problems associated with childhood ADHD is explained by key intermediary influences during adolescence and differs by gender.

Methods

Longitudinal structural equation models examined mediating effects on problems with both substances (or each substance separately) through age-14 peer impairment, internalizing, and adolescent ADHD symptoms in two twin samples, prospectively assessed since age 11 (N = 2,164). Whether these mediators contributed beyond mediating effects of early-adolescent substance use was also considered. Twin difference analyses further illuminated which mediators might be potentially causal.

Results

Direct effects of childhood ADHD on age-17 tobacco and marijuana probl

SUBMITTER: Elkins IJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6169803 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature