title: Impact of hurricane Rita on adolescent substance use.
abstract: Little systematic research attention has been devoted to the impact of natural disasters on adolescent substance use. The present study examined relationships among exposure to Hurricane Rita, post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptoms, and changes in adolescent substance use from 13 months pre-disaster to seven and 19 months post-disaster. Subjects were 280 high school students in southwestern Louisiana who participated in a drug abuse prevention intervention trial prior to the hurricane. Two-thirds of participants were female and 68% were white. Students completed surveys at baseline (13 months pre-hurricane) and two follow-ups (seven and 19 months post-hurricane). Results indicated a positive bivariate relationship between PTS symptoms, assessed at 7 months post-hurricane, and increases in alcohol (p < .05) and marijuana use (p < .10) from baseline to the 7 months post-hurricane follow-up. When these associations were examined collectively with other hurricane-related predictors in multivariate regression models, PTS symptoms did not predict increases in substance use. However, objective exposure to the hurricane predicted increases in marijuana use, and post-hurricane negative life events predicted increases in all three types of substance use (ps < .10). These findings suggest that increased substance use may be one of the behaviors that adolescents exhibit in reaction to exposure to hurricanes.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research, University of Southern California, Alahambra, CA 91802, USA. rohrbac@usc.edu
authors.forename: Louise A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Rohrbach
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Grana
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vernberg
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sussman
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D055867:Cyclonic Storms; D004190:Disasters; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008145:Louisiana; D008297:Male; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*