PAC 102 Module 1 Substance Use Among Adolescents and Young Adults Example

Why Age Fifteen Matters: Substance Use in a Suburban District and Its Community College, and Why the School Years Carry Special Risk

Student Name

Psychology and Addiction Studies Program, Aspen University

PAC 102: Substance Abuse in Educational Settings

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

Why Age Fifteen Matters: Substance Use in a Suburban District and Its Community College, and Why the School Years Carry Special Risk

Lakeshore Unified School District serves about eighteen thousand students in a suburb of a Midwestern city, and Lakeshore Community College, three miles away, enrolls about nine thousand, many of them district graduates. In the past year, the district's counseling staff saw more students referred for vaping on campus, the college reported two alcohol overdoses at off-campus parties and a parent group asked the school board what the district was doing about substance use. Before the district and college can plan, they need a clear picture of use among their students and of why these years matter. This paper provides that picture. Lakeshore, its survey and its students are invented; the research is real.

What the Survey Shows

Every two years the district administers an anonymous student survey in grades eight, ten and twelve, and the college surveys a sample of students each spring. The most recent results show a pattern familiar from national surveys.

The survey has limits. It relies on self-report, it misses students who were absent and its most recent college sample was small. Still, the pattern is consistent across both surveys and over several cycles.

Why the Age of First Use Matters

Grant and Dawson (1997) analyzed data from a large national survey of adults, comparing the age at which people first drank alcohol with their later rates of alcohol abuse and dependence. Those who began drinking before age fifteen were about four times as likely to develop alcohol dependence at some point in their lives as those who began at twenty-one or older. Each additional year of delay in starting to drink was associated with a lower likelihood of later dependence and abuse. The authors cautioned that the relationship might reflect other factors, such as family history or early behavior problems, that lead both to early drinking and to later dependence, but they argued that delaying onset was a sensible prevention goal regardless.

The finding gives Lakeshore's numbers a sharper meaning. The nine percent of eighth graders who drank in the past month, most of them thirteen or fourteen, are the group the research identifies as most at risk for later problems.

The Developing Brain

Adolescence is a period of major brain development, particularly in regions involved in judgment and self-control, which continue to mature into the twenties. Squeglia et al. (2009) reviewed research on how substance use relates to adolescent brain development. Studies found that adolescents who drank heavily performed worse on some tests of attention, memory and spatial skills and showed differences in brain structure, including smaller volumes in some regions and differences in the white matter connecting brain areas, compared with nondrinking peers. Adolescents who used marijuana heavily also showed differences in brain function and some cognitive tasks. The authors noted that it was not always clear whether these differences resulted from substance use or preceded it, and that longitudinal studies were beginning to address that question.

For a school district, the point is not to frighten students but to recognize that the years when use begins are years when the brain is still building the systems needed to manage risk.

How Use Changes Across the Years

Chen and Jacobson (2012) used national data that followed young people from early adolescence into young adulthood to describe how substance use typically changes over time. For most substances, use increased through adolescence and peaked in the early twenties before declining. The timing and steepness of these increases differed by gender and by racial and ethnic group; some groups began earlier and others increased faster later. The study suggests that schools and colleges see students at the stages when use is climbing, and that patterns differ across student groups.

Reading the Profile

Taken together, the survey and the research point to three conclusions. First, the transition from middle school to high school is when use rises most steeply in Lakeshore, and it is also when early onset, the strongest predictor of later problems, is most likely. Second, use continues to climb into the college years, where binge drinking becomes common among students under twenty-one, consistent with the trajectories Chen and Jacobson describe. Third, the district and college serve the same young people at different points on the same curve, which argues for planning together rather than separately.

The profile also guards against exaggeration. Most Lakeshore students do not use substances in a given month, and most of those who experiment will not develop a disorder. A plan built on fear would misrepresent the data and lose students' trust.

Groups That Need Attention

The survey also shows differences within the population. Students who reported low grades, little connection to school or a family member with a substance problem reported higher use, as did students who identified as lesbian, gay or bisexual. These patterns, consistent with national research, suggest that prevention and support must reach students who are least connected to school, not only those who come to adults' attention.

Implications for Schools and Colleges

Three implications follow for later modules of this course. Prevention should begin before ninth grade and continue through the transition, when use rises fastest. Screening and early intervention should be available in high school and at the college, since use keeps climbing. And the district and college should share data and coordinate, since students move from one to the other, often carrying their risks with them.

Conclusion

Substance use in Lakeshore rises steeply between eighth and tenth grade and continues into the community college years. Grant and Dawson show why use that begins before fifteen deserves special concern, Squeglia, Jacobus and Tapert show why the developing brain matters and Chen and Jacobson describe the climb in use through adolescence into the early twenties. These findings tell the district and college when to act and why they should act together.

References

Chen, P., & Jacobson, K. C. (2012). Developmental trajectories of substance use from early adolescence to young adulthood: Gender and racial/ethnic differences. Journal of Adolescent Health, 50(2), 154-163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2011.05.013

Grant, B. F., & Dawson, D. A. (1997). Age at onset of alcohol use and its association with DSM-IV alcohol abuse and dependence: Results from the National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey. Journal of Substance Abuse, 9, 103-110. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0899-3289(97)90009-2

Squeglia, L. M., Jacobus, J., & Tapert, S. F. (2009). The influence of substance use on adolescent brain development. Clinical EEG and Neuroscience, 40(1), 31-38. https://doi.org/10.1177/155005940904000110