Summary: Predictors Of Substance Abuse

Predictors of Substance Abuse
There are many reasons to engage in using drugs which make establishing preventive measures difficult; the causes of drug use is typically broken down into two categories: psychiatric and psychosocial predictors. These factors include pre-existing mental health disorders, family outcomes (i.e. family history of substance abuse, parental outlook on drugs, single parent households, inadequate parental supervision), socioeconomic status (both low and high SES), academic performance, academic stress, peer influences and social media influences. However, few studies make a comparative comorbid analysis of the effects of both psychiatric and psychosocial predictors (Gau et al., 2007). The literature that is available

Substance-using students, compared with non-users, are at increased risk for academic failure, including drop out, especially when their substance is frequent and severe.
2. The more severe the substance use, the more likely the impact on academic performance and risk for drop out.
3. Some studies provide evidence that substance use precedes academic failure; other studies provide evidence that early academic failure precedes substance use.
4. Cessation of substance use following treatment is associated with improvements in academic performance.
5. High school dropouts, compared with non-dropouts, have dramatically higher rates of substance use. (DuPont et al., 2013, p.

5). The researchers at CASA have also found a correlation between the stress of academic performance and drug use, describing academic performance as the greatest stressor for high school students. In comparing low stress teens with a GPA of 3.0 or higher (A’s and B’s) to high stress teens with a GPA of 2.9 or lower (C’s and D’s), the high stress students who perform poorly are, “Seven times likelier to have used marijuana; more than three times likelier to have used alcohol; and more than three times likelier to have used tobacco” (The National Center on Addictions and Substance Abuse, 2012, p. 5). As complex as the social predictors of adolescent substance abuse are, determining the factors of drug use in high school comes down to three basic aspects: 1) the degree of family involvement in the adolescent’s life, 2) the degree of a student’s free time and 3) the amount of a student’s spending money or