Variations in social contexts and their effect on adolescent inhalant use: A latent profile investigation

Abstract

The social contexts surrounding the use and abuse of inhalants is poorly understood. The aim of this study was to utilize Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) to identify specific subgroups of adolescents based on social contextual effects surrounding inhalant use episodes in a sample of 279 adolescent inhalant users. Findings revealed that a three-class solution exhibited the best empirical and conceptual fit with the data. Identified classes represented a gradient of low, moderate, and high levels of contextual effects where approximately one third of adolescent inhalant users reported high levels of inhalant use in response to social contextual influences. Subsequent validation analysis showed that these gradient-based classes were directly correspondent with severity in measures of psychopathology, past drug use, variety of inhalants used, and measures of impulsivity and fearlessness. Results indicate heterogeneity in contextual effects on inhalant use and suggest that follow-up studies should examine the role that susceptibility and exposure to contextual effects has on inhalant use.

Does Marijuana Use Serve as a Gateway to Cigarette Use for High-Risk African-American Youth?

“…Youth received $10.00 for their participation. Additional information on the study sample and procedures has been published elsewhere (6)(7)(8).…”

Volatile Substance Misuse in the United States

“…Volatile substance misuse is associated with a range of sociodemographic and psychosocial factors that may provide some clues as to the causal origins and potential consequences of the behavior (Vaughn, Perron, & Howard, 2007). Findings related to age, gender, race/ethnicity, mental health, and psychosocial characteristics are reviewed below.…”

Diferencias sociodemográficas entre usuarios de inhalables, usuarios de otras drogas y adolescentes no consumidores en una muestra mexicana de estudiantes

“…En estudios longitudinales y transversales se ha encontrado que el consumo de estas drogas en edades tempranas predice el uso simultáneo de opiáceos, así como el desarrollo de trastorno por uso de opiáceos en la adultez (Schepis & Krishnan-Sarin, 2008;Storr, Westergaard, & Anthony, 2005;Wu, Schlenger, & Ringwalt, 2005). Los cambios neuropsicológicos relacionados con el uso de inhalables son mediados por las características del contexto psicosocial, como la historia de consumo de drogas en la familia, un nivel socioeconómico bajo (Nonnemaker, Crankshaw, Shive, Hussin, & Farrelly, 2011) y la comorbilidad con trastornos mentales (Takagi, Lubman, & Yucel, 2007;Vaughn, Perron, & Howard, 2007;Wu et al, 2005). Como pasa con otras drogas, pero en mayor medida, los adolescentes consideran el uso de inhalables como un medio de escape de la realidad, así como una herramienta para socializar (Siegel, Alvaro, Patel, & Crano, 2009).…”