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Recent research has unveiled a concerning facet of college life, one that directly impacts the wellbeing and future of our students. Engaging in the exploratory world of latent profiles of alcohol and cannabis use among college students, the findings are not only insightful, they are also forewarning.
Substance use in the collegiate landscape is not a one-size-fits-all narrative. It is mosaic, painted by the diverse patterns and intensities of alcohol and cannabis consumption. Recognizing such unique impressions leads to a critical juncture in our approach to student health and well-being—a juncture we cannot afford to ignore as it delineates those at highest risk for consequential lifepath deviations.
The pioneering look at latent profiles is more than just a study; it’s a ground-breaking framework, dissecting the fabric of subgroups within the college demography. This article will probe into the critical findings and articulate the imperative need for a nuanced intervention strategy.
A Differentiated Convergence of Use Profiles
Traditionally, substance use studies have often bundled students into homogenized categories based on surface-level consumption data. But here lies a disparity—within these cohorts, individual behaviours stand distinct, with some venturing into territories of high-risk consumption at an alarmingly high rate.
The latent profile analyses (LPA) distinguished these subgroups through an incisive classification involving alcohol and cannabis use frequency, alongside the quantum of consumption. The revelation was stark: four profiles emerged. The bulk of students, representing 'light, infrequent' use, painted a picture of moderation that seemed heartening at first glance. However, this halo-effect shrouded the fact that a noteworthy 10% fell into ‘high-risk’ categories where the pendulum swung to ‘heavy’ and ‘frequent’ usage trends.
Profiles three and four harbored grim warning signs, predominantly of simultaneous use (SAM), and an indisputable accentuation of substance-related calamities. The correlation between heavier consumption and increased likelihood of severe alcoholic or cannabis-related incidents is a troubled path that these profiles seem to tread.
Unveiling the Demographic Tapestry
Deeper analysis unraveled a relationship between these consumption patterns and certain demographics. Male, White non-Hispanic, and Greek-affiliated students were more predisposed to nestle within the profiles characterised by spiked drink and smoke statistics. This alignment of demographics with consumption significance urges for a bespoke approach that accounts for these demographic nuances when devising campus-specific intervention strategies.
A Nexus of High-Risk Profiles and Severe Consequences
The crux of the matter is that these high-risk profiles dictate a bleak narrative of adverse, potentially life-altering repercussions. SAM, often a silent catalyst for amplified substance use, emerges as a red flag in Profiles 3 and 4, reflecting a confluence of alcohol and cannabis to a concerning degree. The students confronting their realities within these profiles not only witnessed an uptick in simultaneous usage, but also a starkly higher prevalence of associated consequences, wielding an alarmingly direct correlation between consumption and repercussions.
Understanding these depths is not merely an exercise in academic curiosity; it's a beacon for policy and resource allocation. The findings anchor an unyielding case for proactive interventions that acknowledge the individual nuances within the campus culture, directing targeted support to those most at risk.
Pathways to Proactive Intervention
The onus thus falls on collegiate administrations to forge forward with initiatives that are sharp, targeted, and, most significantly, pre-emptive. These initiatives must unravel the complexities of individual patterns and offer a collaborative ecosystem of frameworks—ranging from educational programmes to community support networks—that bolster students against the undertow of substance-abuse risks.
The call to action is resounding. We have the knowledge, the tools, and the obligation to foster an environment that not only appreciates diversity in all its facets but also unceasingly works towards ensuring the safety and success of our students. Colleges and universities must stand as bastions of advocacy and education, where no student's future is preordained by the profile they are defaulted to.
In conclusion, this thought leadership article is more than an exposé of risk; it aims to galvanize institutions towards a more informed, targeted, and compassionate form of intervention. The onus lies upon each of us to heed these findings, to redefine our roles as custodians of the collegiate community, and to collectively ensure that the campus environment is one that not only fosters growth but safeguards the very potential it helps to nurture.
References:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306460322003021?via%3Dihub
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07448481.2023.2237599
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Drug Policies Contravening International Drug Conventions & Rights of the Child – This insightful research report on the misuse of drug policy vehicles shows not only an increase in harms it is supposed to mitigate, but more concerning, a disregard for the international Rights of Children.
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Building Resilience in Children Aged 9-13: A Most Effective Method of Illicit Drug Use Prevention #WorldResiliencyDay23 #WorldDrugDay
It is no secret that illicit drug use is a major problem in our society. And the reasons for that are many. However, it is a growing irresilience and a careless drug use normalising ‘adult culture’ that model the very elements that undermine resilience such as poor impulse control, inability to delay gratification, externalizing blame in crises and a general lack of accountability in a ‘party hard’ context. All these are big drivers of this emerging public health crisis in Gen Now.
Tragically, and disturbingly, many children and young adults are exposed to drugs at an early age, leading to all to quickly to addiction modes and long-term health issues – there is NO level of ‘safe’ drug use for the developing brain – To combat this issue, it is important to focus on prevention rather than treatment. One of the most effective methods of preventing illicit drug use in children aged 9-13 is building resilience.
Resilience is defined as the ability to cope with stress, challenge, tragedy, trauma or adversity without engaging self-harming behaviours for temporary, but ultimately, resiliency undermining ‘relief’.
It helps children develop key capacities such as the ability to plan, monitor and regulate behaviour which enables them to respond adaptively to difficult situations. Building resilience in children aged 9-13 can help them make better decisions when faced with peer pressure or other difficult situations involving substances.
There are many ways parents and caregivers can help build resilience in their children.
First and foremost is reinforcing the fact that drug use is ‘bad’, because it is dangerous, physically, psychologically, emotionally and behaviourally. Not only informing those in your care with evidence-based education but modelling that conduct yourselves. No good the ‘do as I say, don’t do as I do’ mantra. The demonstration is a far more powerful ‘educator’ than mere instruction.
Another vital tool is providing a safe and supportive environment for them to express their feelings. This can help them learn how to manage their emotions more effectively. Encouraging positive self-talk and helping them identify their strengths can also be beneficial for building resilience. Additionally, teaching your child problem solving skills such as brainstorming solutions or seeking out support from trusted adults can help them find constructive ways of dealing with difficult situations involving drugs or alcohol.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has identified several strategies for preventing drug use among young people including creating supportive family environments, strengthening social networks and increasing access to education and employment opportunities. These strategies all involve building resilience in children aged 9-13 so that they have the skills necessary to make healthy decisions when faced with challenges related to drugs or alcohol.
At the Dalgarno Institute we believe that building resilience in children aged 9-13 is one of the most effective methods of preventing illicit drug use. We provide evidence-based programs designed specifically for this age group which focus on developing life skills such as communication, problem solving and decision making which are essential for building resilience. Our programs also emphasise the importance of positive relationships between parents/caregivers and their children as well as between peers so that young people feel supported during times of difficulty or adversity.
Building resilience in children aged 9-13 is an important step towards preventing illicit drug use among young people today. Parents/caregivers should take advantage of available resources such as those provided by the UNODC and Dalgarno Institute so that they can give their children the best chance at success by equipping them with the tools necessary for making healthy decisions when faced with challenging situations involving drugs or alcohol.
Sources:
1) https://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/resilience/
2) https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/prevention/youth_prevention_strategies_for_drug_abuse_and_hivaids_.html
3) https://nobrainer.org.au/index.php/student-teacher/curriculum/828-protective-factor-number-one-in-drug-use-prevention-science
4) https://dalgarnoinstitute.org.au/images/resources/pdf/Dalgarno__UNODC_Doc_19-12-22.pdf
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This World Drug Day, 26th June 2023, let’s focus our attention on delaying and denying uptake of substances for our most vulnerable and their communities, and work toward reducing stigma of those seeking to exit drug use to a healthier, safer, and more promising future. #preventdontpromote #RecoveryPosse
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Protective Factor Number One in Drug Use Prevention Science: In Denying or Delaying Uptake of Substances the Key Protective Factor for Your Children/Students is the “Belief that Drug are Bad”
Latest research out of University of Illinois, and not before time, has published what has been intuitively known for decades – That is that the key, and it would appear overarching, protective factor against substance use uptake is the ‘Belief that drug use is wrong’. (Also, parental reinforcement of this belief, along with honest caring and proactive parenting of the child as the other bookend of this primary protective factor)
The researchers found individual beliefs that drug use is wrong had twice the magnitude of impact compared to other risk and protective factors examined in the study. Thus, influencing adolescents' beliefs about drug use may be an important but relatively underemphasized key to modifying their behavior.
The researchers analyzed information from the 2018 Illinois Youth Survey, which measured risk behaviors among middle and high school students. The study included more than 128,000 youths in grades 8, 10, and 12 from schools across Illinois. Respondents noted whether and how frequently they had used alcohol, cannabis or tobacco in the past year. They also answered a range of questions about their attitudes, school, family and health.
"It is not surprising that drug use beliefs are linked to behavior; we certainly would expect a correlation between them. What's most noticeable is the magnitude of the effect, particularly in comparison to more established factors included in the analyses," Barton states.
In the survey, youth were asked how wrong they think it is for someone their age to consume alcohol or drugs, ranking from "not wrong at all" to "very wrong" on a four-point scale. For each unit increase in response, the likelihood of past-year drug abstinence increased by 39% for 8th graders, 50% for 10th graders, and 53% for 12th graders.
Beliefs not only correlated strongly with past usage, but also with frequency of use.
"Even among individuals who used drugs in the past year, individual beliefs that drug use is wrong were associated with less frequent use," Barton says.1
The Dalgarno Institute and other primary prevention, demand reduction and community resilience building educators, have been fully aware of this issue for many years and have challenged some of the confusing narratives coming out about drug education priorities which lean toward normalizing or even sanitizing drug use as, ‘part of growing up’!
It is concerning for all communities and their families that pro-drug advocates have been working tirelessly to hijack our very important National Drug Strategy and create the very ‘cognitive dissonance’ we are seeing in many AOD education offerings.
What is even more concerning however, is the outcome (whether intended or not) of sending a strong tacit message to our young people that drug use is somehow ‘normal’ or at least, a phase of experimentation that is normal. Messages that clearly undercut this primary prevention vehicle of drug use being wrong, The reason for this undercutting appear varied and also concerning.
Consequently, the emerging generation are being primed by this ‘messaging’ along with an increasingly consistent indifference to adolescent drug use that either ignores best practice of prevention, demand reduction and abstinence or worse; actively mocks these positions as unsophisticated or sub-culturally ‘uncool’. Subsequently this all creates the self-fulfilling predictor that kids are being primed to hear, and that is… ‘drug use is normal, a little risky, but manageable’, because some of the ‘grown ups’ are telling me it is!
Add to that, the following tactics
- Socio-behavioural undermining drivers such as couching some psychotropic toxins in a ‘medicinal’ context – thus feigning a type of legitimacy for ‘recreational’ engagement. e.g. cannabis and psychedelics.
- The ongoing misuse of legitimate de-stigmatizing vehicles, not to assist those caught in substance use, but more cynically to defend those who willing use substances for ‘recreational’ purposes.
- The touting of the damage management model of harm reduction (not prevention) as the preferred emphasis in AOD education.
- Not to mention the decriminalisation agendas that all scream at the emerging adult, (all-be-it sub-textually) that ‘drug use can’t be all that bad!’
It is important for us all to understand these advocacies and the associated conduct in the public square is all an in-kind drug ‘education’, and the pro-drug lobby knows this.
Our Children/Students have as their actual ‘Human Right’ under Article 33 Convention the Rights of the Child to be protected from all aspects of illicit drug use – all aspects. Any vehicle of mechanism that undermines or interferes with that authentic human right is at best incredibly concerning, at worst utterly egregious.
It is time that all teaching/learning environments had Demand Reduction and Primary Prevention at the centre of all AOD education – as we do with Tobacco.
There is Only one message, one voice and one focus in the marketplace and that is Don’t Uptake or QUIT. There is no dissenting, contrary or confusing voices in any public sectors of education, medical and government policy on Tobacco, so why are we permitting this confusion in the illicit drug space?
It's time we had a ‘war for the brains, health and future’ of the emerging generation, and stop pandering to a cultural minority who continue to expend extraordinary amounts of social, intellectual, and financial capital on trying to convince the culture that drug use and the outcome of ‘getting high’ or ‘having fun’ is not only manageable, but important.
The usefulness of lived experience of the Recovering Alumni – The ex-drug user – in understanding this key protective factor cannot be understated.
Key questions that must be answered,
- What is best practice around AOD (alcohol & other drug) use for the developing brain – Prevention of damage management?
- What ‘drug education’ are your children/students being subject too?
- Why, as educators, would we permit any cognitive dissonance in our teaching/learning environments in the AOD education space?
It’s time to #preventdontpromote and work tirelessly in promoting #demandreduction
Also see
- Drug Policy: Prevent, don't promote. Part 3, Changing language: Control Language, Control Culture (What Drug Education are Your Kids Getting? Cognitive Dissonance Theory) Drug Policy: Prevent, don't promote. Part 3, Changing language: Control Language, Control Culture - YouTube Drug Policy: Prevent, don't promote. Part 3, Changing language: Control Language, Control Culture - YouTube
- Drug Policy: Prevent, don't promote. Part 2, What's in Play? Controlling language
Education Team @ Dalgarno Institute
Drug use beliefs found to be strongest predictor of youth substance use
by Marianne Stein, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
What are the most important factors to consider for developing effective drug use prevention programs? Many current programs for adolescents focus on elements including peer and family relationships, school connection, and youth's self-confidence and self-assertion. However, a new study from the University of Illinois (U of I) suggests another factor may be equally—or even more—influential: whether the youth believes drug use is wrong.
"Inherent to the success of drug use prevention programs is ensuring activities are targeting those risks and protective factors that are most influential and salient for youth substance use," says Allen Barton, assistant professor and Extension specialist in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at U of I and lead author on the study.
"As we aim to develop more effective drug use prevention programming, we have to ask whether any pertinent factors have been overlooked."
Barton and his colleagues found individual beliefs that drug use is wrong had twice the magnitude of impact compared to other risk and protective factors examined in the study. Thus, influencing adolescents' beliefs about drug use may be an important but relatively underemphasized key to modifying their behavior.
The researchers based their work on cognitive dissonance theory, which has not been used commonly to inform drug prevention efforts.
"The basic idea of cognitive dissonance theory is that individuals strive for harmony or agreement between their beliefs and their behavior. When there's a disconnect or dissonance, they try to reconcile either by changing their behavior to match their beliefs, or by changing their beliefs to allow for their behavior," Barton explains.
The researchers analyzed information from the 2018 Illinois Youth Survey, which measured risk behaviors among middle and high school students. The study included more than 128,000 youths in grades 8, 10, and 12 from schools across Illinois. Respondents noted whether and how frequently they had used alcohol, cannabis or tobacco in the past year. They also answered a range of questions about their attitudes, school, family and health.
"It is not surprising that drug use beliefs are linked to behavior; we certainly would expect a correlation between them. What's most noticeable is the magnitude of the effect, particularly in comparison to more established factors included in the analyses," Barton states.
In the survey, youth were asked how wrong they think it is for someone their age to consume alcohol or drugs, ranking from "not wrong at all" to "very wrong" on a four-point scale. For each unit increase in response, the likelihood of past-year drug abstinence increased by 39% for 8th graders, 50% for 10th graders, and 53% for 12th graders.
Beliefs not only correlated strongly with past usage, but also with frequency of use.
"Even among individuals who used drugs in the past year, individual beliefs that drug use is wrong were associated with less frequent use," Barton says.
The researchers found parents' beliefs also had a protective effect, albeit smaller than individual beliefs, while peer acceptance of drug usage was a risk factor. Perhaps more surprisingly, parental communication about drugs was associated with higher usage.
"These conversations may be happening because parents are already suspicious that youth are using drugs or trying to experiment," Barton notes. He suggests parents might want to speak with their kids about drugs at an earlier age, perhaps during the middle school years, rather than wait until they perceive a problem.
The study's findings can inform research and prevention efforts in various ways, the scientists say. First steps are to investigate how youths' beliefs about drug use are formed and influenced. Practitioners might also consider how they can support parents and caregivers in transmitting their beliefs to youth.
"Our work suggests this is a construct that warrants more attention in both the research and practice communities as it demonstrates a strong protective effect when it comes to drug use," Barton says. "As we are trying to improve drug use prevention programming for youth, these results suggest it may be useful to think about how educators, mentors, and parents can help instill the belief that drug use is wrong."
RESEARCH: Adolescent Substance Use and Individual Beliefs That Drug Use Is Wrong: A State-wide Epidemiological Study
Pages 640-648 | Published online: 10 Feb 2022
Abstract
Objective: Informed by cognitive dissonance theory, the current study investigated the ability of youths’ belief that drug use is wrong to predict likelihood of past year substance use abstinence as well as frequency of use at grades 8, 10, and 12.
Method: Study analyses were executed from a statewide epidemiological survey of more than 125,000 youth using multi-group Zero-Inflated Poisson regression modeling.
Results: Personal belief that drug use is wrong demonstrated the largest magnitude of effect at each grade among the individual, family, and school-based factors under examination; this finding emerged with respect to predicting past year substance use abstinence as well as rates of substance use among individuals reporting past year use. Although differences across grades were evident for the magnitude of effect within various risk and protective factors, the rank ordering in magnitude of effect between factors was consistent across grades 8, 10, and 12.
Conclusion: Current results underscore the salience of youths’ belief that drug use is wrong in explaining likelihood of past year substance use at multiple time points during adolescence.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10826084.2022.2034877?journalCode=isum20