Drug use, agency, and communality: Causes and consequences among adults.

Certain causes and consequences of drug use may be unique to young adults and might involve gender-role expectations that women are most directed toward communality issues, whereas men are concerned with agentic tasks. Failure in these gender-specific tasks would lead to an increase in future drug use and earlier drug use would hinder the development of these skills for men and women. Data were obtained in 1984 and 1988 from 391 women and 156 men in their early to mid 20s as part of a 12-yr longitudinal study of adolescent development and drug use. Analyses were conducted with structural equation models incorporating repeatedly measured constructs of polydrug use, communality, and agency. Results generally supported these expectations when both specific and general effects were considered. In addition, women's drug use also interfered with their agentic goals and men's drug use damaged their communal relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Structure of drug use behaviors and consequences among young adults: Multitrait-multimethod assessment of frequency, quantity, work site, and problem substance use.

We examined relations among self-report measures and outcomes of drug use among 739 young adults. Purposes of the study included (a) partitioning measures of drug use frequency, quantity, disruptive substance use (in the workplace and school), and problem use in a multitrait–multimethod framework using latent-variable confirmatory analysis; (b) testing whether drug use frequency and quantity were interchangeable, equally powerful predictors of problem drug behaviors; (c) evaluating whether higher order constructs explained associations among the latent variables, once specific drug use was controlled; and (d) examining the relations between negative drug consequences (arrests and accidents) and the latent variables. Results supported the construct validity of the hypothesized latent factors. Although highly correlated, Drug Use Frequency and Drug Use Quantity were not interchangeable: Quantity was a more powerful predictor of disruptive and problem drug use. A second-order factor of General Drug Use and Abuse accounted for the first-order constructs. Differences between adolescent and young-adult drug use and policy implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Concurrent versus simultaneous polydrug use: Prevalence, correlates, discriminant validity, and prospective effects on health outcomes.

Few studies have addressed the distinction between concurrent polydrug use (various drugs used on separate occasions) and simultaneous polydrug use (the use of more than 1 drug at the same time). The authors assessed simultaneous polydrug use in a community sample to examine the prevalence of drug combinations, whether simultaneous can be distinguished from concurrent, and the prospective effects of these styles of drug use on subsequent health service utilization, physical symptoms, and psychological distress 4 years later. Marijuana and alcohol were the most common drugs used simultaneously, followed by alcohol and cigarettes. Simultaneous and Concurrent Polydrug Use formed 2 correlated but discriminable constructs. Neither Simultaneous nor Concurrent Polydrug use predicted subsequent Health Service Utilization, Physical Symptoms, or Psychological Distress. Data did reveal unique effects of specific drugs used simultaneously on these outcomes that were larger and more numerous than specific effects of concurrent drug use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychosocial correlates and predictors of AIDS risk behaviors, abortion, and drug use among a community sample of young adult women.

Examined relations among latent constructs of Social Conformity, Sensation Seeking, Polydrug Use, Sexual Experience, Abortion, and Risky AIDS Behavior among a community sample of women (N?=?438, mean age 25.5 yrs) using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and predictive structural equation models (SEMs). In the CFA, Risky AIDS Behavior was strongly related to more Polydrug Use and less Social Conformity and modestly related to Sexual Experience and Abortion. In SEMs, Social Conformity significantly predicted less Risky AIDS Behavior and less Polydrug Use but did not predict Abortion. Prior Sexual Experience predicted more Polydrug Use and Abortion. The same psychological processes and predispositions that relate low social conformity to drug use and other unhealthy behaviors may also influence AlDS-risk behaviors, even among a community sample of women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Homeless men and women: Differential associations among substance abuse, psychosocial factors, and severity of homelessness.

Latent variable multiple-group confirmatory factor analyses assessed gender differences in relationships among drug and alcohol use, measures indicating severity of homelessness, criminal history, prior institutionalization, and mental illness (N?=?531 homeless persons; 386 men and 145 women). Severity was indicated by length of time homeless, housing quality, and victimization. Men reported more substance use, a longer time homeless, poorer housing quality, greater criminal involvement, and less likelihood of living with a child. Constrained multiple-group models surfaced 5 significantly different relationships between latent constructs. Men had stronger relationships between mental illness and prior institutionalization, drug use and mental illness, and drug use and victimization, whereas women had stronger relationships between drug use and alcohol use, and criminal involvement and drug use. Service delivery implications and suggestions for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The association between the negative effects attributed to ecstasy use and measures of cognition and mood among users.

In self reports, abstinent ecstasy/polydrug users claim that they experience certain ongoing affective and psychological changes including elevated anxiety, arousal, and depression. In addition, various aspects of cognition (e.g., everyday memory, reasoning, executive functioning) appear to be affected. The present paper investigated the link between these two psychological sequelae. Ninety-five ecstasy/polydrug users completed tests of reasoning, intelligence, information processing speed, executive functioning, and everyday memory. Affect was measured via a mood adjective checklist. Adverse effects attributed to ecstasy were measured via responses to adjectives reflecting changes in users since they started using the drug. In addition, indicators of sleep quality and daytime sleepiness were obtained. Users attributed a number of adverse effects to ecstasy, namely heightened irritability, depression, paranoia, and deteriorating health. Adverse effects were significantly and negatively correlated with aspects of intelligence, everyday memory, and sleep quality. Length of use of ecstasy use was positively correlated with adverse effects. While many users attribute a number of adverse affects to their use of ecstasy, it remains unclear whether these self-perceptions are a corollary of the psychopharmacological effects of the drug or reflect factors which in fact predate its use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family Communication and Religiosity Related to Substance Use and Sexual Behavior in Early Adolescence: A Test for Pathways Through Self-Control and Prototype Perceptions.

This research tested predictions about pathways to substance use and sexual behavior with a community sample of 297 African American adolescents (M age: 13.0 years). Structural modeling indicated that parent-adolescent communication had a path to unfavorable prototypes of substance users; quality of parent-adolescent relationship had paths to good self-control, higher resistance efficacy, and unfavorable prototypes of sexually active teens; and religiosity had inverse direct effects to both substance use and sexual behavior. Self-control constructs had paths to prototypes of abstainers, whereas risk taking had paths to prototypes of drug and sex engagers and direct effects to outcomes. Prototypes had paths to outcomes primarily through resistance efficacy and peer affiliations. Effects were also found for gender, parental education, and temperament characteristics. Implications for self-control theory and prevention research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adolescent drug use and adult drug problems in women: Direct, interactive, and mediational effects.

The authors studied effects of variables assessed in adolescence on problems from drug use in adulthood in a community sample of women. One focus of this 13-year longitudinal study was moderators, which were hypothesized to exacerbate, or attenuate, the effects of early drug consumption on later drug problems. Potential moderators were sensation seeking, social conformity, academic orientation, parental support, depression, and drug problems in parents. Direct and mediating effects of these variables, as well as of drug consumption, were also evaluated. Results showed that most of the significant effects involved sensation seeking and social conformity. In addition, adolescent drug use significantly predicted adult polydrug problems. The effects of sensation seeking are consistent with the view that this variable reflects a sensitivity to drug use, which makes it more likely that drug use gets translated into drug abuse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Moderating effects of gender on the relationship between not graduating from high school and psychological dysfunction in young adulthood.

With data from a panel (N?=?4,679) tested in the 7th grade and as young adults as input to the LISREL 8 program, the authors estimated 2 male-female sets of theoretically informed models specifying effects of failure to finish high school on the latent construct "psychological dysfunction" during young adulthood and controlling for psychological functioning in the 7th grade, father's education, race or ethnicity, and other variables. Results suggest a negative effect of not graduating on psychological functioning for both male and female students in the full sample and in the sample of students who did not go on to college (n?=?1,871). This relationship was stronger for female than for male participants in the full sample, but no statistical difference was evident in the non-college-bound subsample. These results are accounted for by the stronger relationship observed between starting college and adult psychological functioning for women than for men. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mood and HIV risk behavior among drug-dependent veterans.

Extends prior investigations of risk behaviors for contracting and transmitting the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) among treatment-seeking drug abusers by analyzing the relationship between HIV risk behavior and drug use and psychopathology variables. A battery of tests related to knowledge about AIDS and semistructured interviews were administered to 170 patients (aged 21–59 yrs) at a Veterans Administration drug dependence treatment unit. Ss with high anxiety and depression scores reported engaging in significantly more HIV drug-risk behaviors. In terms of drug of choice, polydrug users did not report engaging in significantly more high-risk sexual behaviors than Ss abusing solely cocaine. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Estimating, testing, and comparing specific effects in structural equation models: The phantom model approach.

The phantom model approach for estimating, testing, and comparing specific effects within structural equation models (SEMs) is presented. The rationale underlying this novel method consists in representing the specific effect to be assessed as a total effect within a separate latent variable model, the phantom model that is added to the main model. The following favorable features characterize the method: (a) It enables the estimation, testing, and comparison of arbitrary specific effects for recursive and nonrecursive models with latent and manifest variables; (b) it enables the bootstrapping of confidence intervals; and (c) it can be applied with all standard SEM programs permitting latent variables, the specification of equality constraints, and the bootstrapping of total effects. These features along with the fact that no manipulation of matrices and formulas is required make the approach particularly suitable for applied researchers. The method is illustrated by means of 3 examples with real data sets. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

A neuropsychological study of polydrug users

The long-term neuropsychological effects of persistent nonmedical drug use are still unknown. In this study, 22 young men, all extensive "polydrug" users, were examined while free from drugs for an average of 60 days by means of the Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery. Their performance was compared to that of age-education-sex-matched neurologically intact medical patients and a similarly matched group of neurologically impaired patients. Blind independent ratings of test protocols by two experienced clinicians judged 41% to 64% of the drug users, 11% to 26% of the medical patients, and 84% to 89% of the neurologic patients to be impaired. Interpretation of these results suggests that in some individuals, heavy "polydrug" use may be associated with neuropsychological dysfunction, which persists at least an average of two months beyond cessation of drug use.     

Developmental relations between depressive symptoms, minor hassles, and major events from adolescence through age 30 years.

Stress generation and stress exposure models of the relations among depressive symptoms, minor hassles, and major event stress were investigated among 815 community-dwelling participants. Autoregressive latent trajectory models were constructed to examine latent growth patterns from ages 15 years to 30 years and to test 1-year lagged, reciprocal paths between depressive symptoms and stress constructs. Results indicated significant cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between depressive symptoms and both stress constructs at the latent level. At the manifest level, lagged paths from hassles at 1 year to depressive symptoms at the next year were significant between ages 17 years and 24 years. Significant cross-sectional paths between major events and depressive symptoms were found between ages 24 years and 28 years, and modest support was found for lagged paths from depressive symptoms to major events 1 year later. Findings generally suggest a high degree of covariation in depressive symptoms and stress concurrently and over time. One-year lagged predictive effects net of the associations between individuals' latent trajectories appear to be weak, constrained to specific time periods, and most consistent with a stress exposure effect of hassles on depressive symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender differences in partner violence in a birth cohort of 21-year-olds: Bridging the gap between clinical and epidemiological approaches.

This study describes partner violence in a representative sample of young adults. Physical violence perpetration was reported by 37.2% of women and 21.8% of men. Correlates of involvement in severe physical violence differed by gender. Severe physical violence was more strongly associated with unemployment, low educational attainment, few social support resources, polydrug use, antisocial personality disorder symptoms, depression symptoms, and violence toward strangers for men than for women. Women who were victims of severe physical violence were more likely than men who were victims to experience symptoms of anxiety. The findings converge with community studies showing that more women than men are physically violent toward a partner and with clinical studies highlighting violence perpetrated against women by men with deviant characteristics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An 8-year study of multiple influences on drug use and drug use consequences.

Multiple long-term influences on young adult drug use and abuse were tested within an interactionist perspective using latent-variable causal models. Intrapersonal influences included early drug use and social conformity. Proximal interpersonal influences were captured by perceived peer drug use, perceived adult drug use, and family disruption. More distal influences included perceptions of community approval or disapproval for drug use. Outcome measures included not only use of drugs but also disruptive drug use (getting high at work or school) and self-admitted problems with drugs. Data were obtained from 654 participants at three equally spaced time points during an 8-year longitudinal study that began when the subjects were in junior high school. Stability effects were found for all repeatedly measured latent variables across the 4-year spans. Social conformity strongly influenced other latent variables across time. Early drug use and perceived adult drug use were prominent predictors of young adult drug use, whereas prior drug use predicted disruptive drug use and a lack of social conformity predicted problems with drug use. Early adult alcohol use predicted later disruptive drug use and problems with drug use. Perceived adult drug use generally influenced later alcohol use, whereas peer drug use influenced later cannabis and hard-drug use. Implications for prevention and treatment using a multicausal interactionist perspective are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parent drug-use problems and adult intimate relations: Associations among community samples of young adult women and men.

Clinical and anecdotal evidence suggests that being raised by drug-abusing parents may create problems with intimacy in later life. Nearly all previous work has failed to consider other types of family dysfunction as a precursor to problems with adult intimacy. Many empirical analyses of adult children of drug users (ACDUs) have been compromised by several methodological and conceptual inadequacies, including sample biases, overly simplistic operationalization of ACDU status, and limited analytic procedures. Structural equation models were used to analyze data from a community sample of men and women to address many of these defects. For both women and men, parent drug-use problems predicted poor family support, and family support was strongly associated with good adult intimate relations. Furthermore, for men, more parent drug-use problems reduced dyadic adjustment, increased dependence, and had a specific effect on reducing dating competence. For women, parent drug-use problems had no direct effects on adult intimacy or relationship variables. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impact of adolescent drug use and social support on problems of young adults: A longitudinal study.

Despite widespread concern regarding the effects of teenage drug use, there has been little effort to establish specifically what long-term consequences arise from such use and whether these adverse outcomes may be mitigated by a supportive social network. We obtained data from 654 teenagers when they were in early and late adolescence and used it to evaluate resultant problems reported by this same group of youngsters when they were young adults. General, or polydrug, use increased drug and alcohol, health, and family problems. The unique or independent effects of cigarettes and hard drug use (while controlling for General Drug Use) had a wide range of negative effects on health, psychosomatic symptoms, emotional distress, and interpersonal relationships. Specific use of cannabis increased health and family problems. Alcohol use, which was not reflected in General Drug Use, had no specific negative effects, but it reduced loneliness in romantic relationships, self-derogation, and family problems. General social support during adolescence provided a significant amelioration of all seven young-adult problem areas. In contrast to the effects of specific drugs, specific areas of social support had minimal impact on young-adult functioning. Results are discussed in regard to theory development and prevention strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prospective dynamics of intoxication in the workplace: Personal and job-related predictors and consequences.

Using prospective data from a community sample assessed in young adulthood and again 4 years later, both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses evaluated associations among multiple measures of intoxication in the workplace, job instability and satisfaction, and social conformity. Being high on the job was more prevalent, frequent, and stable over time for men than women, although rates decreased for both genders with age. Measures of social conformity were most related to drug use on the job within time but had few unique effects over time. Only a few earlier work characteristics (but no personal traits) affected later intoxication on the job. Several significant interactions were found between personal and job variables that predicted increased intoxication in the workplace. Earlier intoxication on the job increased later measures of job instability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Physical and Sexual Intimate Partner Violence Among Women in Methadone Maintenance Treatment.

Although several studies have examined the relationship between intimate partner violence (IPV) and drug use among women in drug treatment programs, more information is needed to delineate differences, as a function of the specific drug used. Data from a random sample of 416 women attending methadone programs were analyzed to elucidate the differential associations between IPV and use of the following: marijuana only, cocaine only, heroin only, or cocaine and heroin. Prevalence of IPV among this sample far exceeded estimates from the general population. After adjusting for sociodemographic variables, use of cocaine only was significantly associated with an increased likelihood of experiencing IPV compared with no drug use. Similar results were found for women using both cocaine and heroin. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depression and drinking behavior among women and men: A three-wave longitudinal study of older adults.

This 3-wave longitudinal study analyzed latent variable cross-lagged models of the relation between depressive symptoms and drinking behavior separately for 621 late-middle-aged women and 951 late-middle-aged men. Time lags of 1 and 3 years were used. Among women, heavier alcohol consumption predicted less depressive symptomatology 1 and 3 years later, whereas among men, having more depressive symptoms predicted less alcohol consumption later on. Including cross-temporal paths in the women's depression-drinking problems model did not provide a significant improvement over hypothesizing no cross-temporal effects. Among men, however, having more drinking problems was associated with fewer depressive symptoms 3 years later. These findings were robust in follow-up analyses controlling for the effects of socioeconomic and health status. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)