Inhalant use among antisocial youth: prevalence and correlates.
The current (2.9%), annual (19.6%), and lifetime (34.3%) prevalence of inhalant use among 475 youth (M age = 15.5; SD = 1.5; 87.4% male) on probation in a western state of the United States was assessed. Inhalant users reported significantly less family support and cohesiveness and lower self-esteem, and significantly more lifetime thoughts of suicide and suicide attempts, neighborhood gang activity, peer and parental substance abuse, intentions to engage in illegal behavior, substance-related criminality, and substance abuse than did nonusers. Ethnicity, self-esteem, suicidality, number of substance-using peers, and extent of substance-related criminality significantly discriminated inhalant users from nonusers in a logistic regression analysis. Multiple linear regression analyses indicated that age, perceived school ability, age at initiation of alcohol use, self-esteem, and substance-related criminality significantly predicted age at onset of inhalant use (R2 = .30). Age at initiation of inhalant use, gang membership, truancy, and substance-related criminality significantly predicted lifetime frequency of inhalant use (R2 = .20). Study findings indicate that inhalant-using delinquents evidence significantly greater antisocial attitudes, personal and familial dysfunction, and substance abuse, than do their non-inhalant-using counterparts.
Howard
M O
MO
George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899, USA.
Jenson
J M
JM
D000280:Administration, Inhalation; D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D013287:Illicit Drugs; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012931:Social Environment; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014589:Utah / Q000453:epidemiology
D013287:Illicit Drugs