Substance Abuse Prevention and Schools (SAP) This page displays the selected SAP information from an extensive news/research information service provided to the members of the International School Health Network (ISHN). This service monitors over 225 journals (including over 15 journals on substance abuse , over 100 news media outlets, over 100 social media sources and numerous web sites. As a support to those concerned with preventing substance abuse through schools, ISHN and other organizations have created a twitter-based newsfeed (www.twitter.com/shinsider_sap) that you can follow through your own twitter account and non-branded, simple text web page report. Or you can display either or both of these information resources on your own web site by downloading a widget that displays the postings in a window as seen on the right hand side of this page and below. If you would like to learn how to do this for your web site, or would like to join ISHN, contact [email protected]
Monthly Report on School Substance Abuse Prevention (SAP) Research, News and Resources Thanks to the support of the Drug strategy Community Initiatives Fund of Health Canada through a collaborative project with the Canadian Association for School Health and the Council on Drug Abuse, the International School Health Network is able to publish monthly reports on SAP research, news and resources. This page displays the latest month in our collection. Click here to view the full report or on the monthly archives links for the previous reports.
Here are four of the many substance abuse related highlights of the items from the research, news and social media that caught our attention this month. See the full report for the full listing of over 200 articles, stories, reports and resources.
Student Alcohol Use & Psychological Distress in 12 Developing Countries An article in Issue #2, 2014 of the Journal of Adolescent Health reports on the correlation between student alcoholuse and psychological distress in 12 low resource countries. The authors report that: "Secondary data analysis of the Global School-Based Student Health Survey was conducted using nationally representative data from 12 developing countries: Botswana, Grenada, Indonesia, Kenya, Myanmar, the Philippines, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the Seychelles, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uganda. The surveys were conducted between 2003 and 2008 and involved 32,001 adolescents primarily aged 13–15 years. We used multivariate logistic regression analysis to determine the association between alcohol use and psychological distress. The prevalence of past 30-day alcohol use and lifetime drunkenness varied widely across countries, as did the occurrence of psychological distress (anxiety-induced sleeplessness and/or depression). The risk of psychological distress was significantly higher among adolescents when using alcohol in all countries except Myanmar. In nine of the 12 countries, past 30-day alcohol use was associated with psychological distress, while students who had been drunk at least once in their lifetime had an increased risk of experiencing psychological distress in 11 of the study countries.The urgent need to reduce adolescent alcohol use necessitates the implementation of context- and culture-specific strategies that reduce the physical availability of alcohol.
"Moving creates Significant Transition Risk for Youth Two articles in February 2014 Issue of Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry examine the impact of moving to a different neighbourhood on student social and educational development, reinforcing other research that this can be a risky transition period for young people. The first article Notes that "A large literature on housing mobility, using diverse national child and adolescent samples, indicates that moving has adverse short-term and long-term negative associations with achievement and social development." The second article suggests that tis risk is magnified for at-risk youth, concluding that "The developmental timing of housing mobility affects child behavioral outcomes. Youth in developmental transition at the time of mobility are at greatest risk for disturbances to residential contexts. Assessing housing history represents an important component of interventions with at-risk families."
Trends in Cannabis Use in Europe & North America An article in the February 2014 Issue of Addictions reports on a secondary analysis of three cycles of the HBSC survey data (2002, 2006, 2010). The researchers examined 30 countries and found that ``The frequency of life-time cannabis use decreased over time among adolescents in Europe and North America, particularly in western European countries and the United States (relative risk (RR) = 0.86: confidence interval (CI) 0.79–0.93). This trend was not observed consistently in rapidly developing countries in eastern, central and southern Europe. Over time (2002–10), cannabis use became: (i) less characteristic of high GDP countries in contrast to lower GDP countries (RR = 0.74: CI 0.57–0.95); (ii) less characteristic of youth from high FAS families in contrast to youth from low FAS families (RR = 0.83: CI 0.72–0.96); and (iii) characterized by an increasing gender gap, i.e. consumption was higher among males (RR 1.26: CI 1.04–1.53). Perceived availability of cannabis and peer contacts remained strong predictors of frequent cannabis use. Among 30 European and North American countries, cannabis use appears to have ‘trickled down’ over time, with developing countries taking on the former (heavier) use pattern of richer countries, and less affluent youth taking on the former (heavier) use pattern of more affluent youth. Cannabis use continues to be more common among adolescent males than females.`
Parental Drinking Most Associated with Youth Substance Abuse An article in Issue 134 of drugs & alcohol Dependence examined the inter-connections between parental drinking, harsh parental discipline and adolescent antisocial behaviour have been independently implicated in adolescent alcohol use. The researchers report that Data were ascertained at three consecutive adolescent waves (13.5, 15.5 and 17.5 years) from the Australian Temperament Project, a 15-wave (30 year) general population birth cohort in Victoria, Australia. Adolescent alcohol trajectories, adjusted for time-varying measures of parenting and antisocial behaviour, were regressed on time-stable measures of parental alcohol use. The full case analysis comprised 751 individuals with complete data.`Two distinct alcohol trajectories were identified across the three adolescent waves after adjusting for time-varying factors: a higher and lower drinking group. Both trajectories increased linearly over the study period. Antisocial behaviour was positively associated with both trajectories while harsh parental discipline was positively associated with alcohol use in the lower-use group only. Increased maternal and paternal drinking at 13.5 years placed teenagers at a greater risk of being included in the high-risk trajectory. Parental drinking was the strongest predictor of different drinking trajectories in adolescence. This finding underscores the importance of comprehensive public heath approaches that target both parental and adolescent drinking attitudes and behaviour.