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Adolescent alcohol consumption has declined in most high-income countries over the last decade; however, the prevalence of drinking under the legal age of 18 years remains high. There are several confounding factors related to alcohol use inclusive of gender, poverty, parental education, parental alcohol use and parental mental health difficulties. In addition, young people placed under the care of the state are disproportionately affected by alcohol misuse.

Longitudinal research has shown a linear risk between alcohol consumption and educational performance. Adolescents that have heavy alcohol consumption are associated with lower enrolment in post-secondary education, potentially reduced earnings and heightened job instability.

Universal interventions are one potential way to provide education regarding problematic alcohol use and its consequences. A recent Cochrane review identified that school-based interventions have potential to provide adolescents with the necessary knowledge, skills and opportunities for young people to remain alcohol free and decrease the risk of multiple risk-taking behaviours.

Age at migration is commonly utilized as a proxy measure for assimilation in health behavior research. We reconsider this approach by examining the role of continued connection with places of origin on alcohol use, an important marker of health behavior and overall population health. Cross-border connections may buffer the association between earlier age at migration and alcohol use by providing an alternative channel of influence for behavioral norms. Alternatively, a stress and coping perspective on cross-border ties suggests potentially countervailing adverse impacts of these connections on alcohol use. We used data from the 2002/2003 National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS) (n = 1,641/1,630 Asian and Latino origin respondents, respectively). We first estimated the association between age at migration (child/adolescent versus adult migrant) and any past-year alcohol use. We subsequently tested the interaction between age at migration and two measures of cross-border connections. All models were stratified by region of origin and gender. For Latin American-origin women, cross-border ties were associated with increased risk of past-year alcohol use among those who migrated early in life. In contrast, Asian-origin men and women who migrated as adults and had contact with family and friends abroad had the lowest predicted probabilities of past-year alcohol use. The results among Asians support the idea that cross-border ties may be alternative influences on health behavior outcomes, particularly for adult migrants. Overall, we find qualified support for both transnational and assimilationist perspectives on alcohol use behaviors among US immigrants – as well as the interaction between these two frameworks. The joint influences of cross-border ties and age at migration were observed primarily for immigrant women, and not always in expected directions. We nevertheless urge future research to consider both US and country of origin influences on a wider range of health and health behavior outcomes for immigrants, as well as the potential intersection between US and cross-border connections.

Purpose – This research presents results concerning the impact of family financial stress on adolescent substance use.

Design/methodology/approach – Drawing a sample of 18,614 adolescent males (9,459) and females (9,155) ages 12–17 years from the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, this work utilizes stepwise logistic regression and ordinary least squares to determine whether family poverty measures are associated with adolescent high-risk behaviors of smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, and using marijuana.

Findings – This study found limited support for adolescent substance use within families who are experiencing economic distress. Adolescents from families who had moved at least once in the prior year were more likely to have used cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana. Furthermore, males and females who disapprove of peers’ substance using behaviors are less likely to use those substances.

Research limitations/implications – This study may not explain adolescent substance using behavior outside of the United States. Further research into socioeconomic factors should be addressed in subsequent work as should the intermediary variables pertaining to the parent–child relationship.

Practical implications – Understanding contributing factors to adolescent substance use will assist in developing social policy that will support families.

Originality/value – This study provides insight into the consequences of family characteristics both socioeconomic and psychosocial which influence adolescent substance using behaviors.

This study aims to examine a second-order latent variable of family functioning built from two established protective factors for American Indian (AI) youth, i.e. family cohesion and parental monitoring. This study then examines if family functioning is related to alcohol use frequency or age of initiation for AI youth. Additionally, this study examines if family functioning served as a moderator for the risk factor of peer alcohol use.

Data came from the 2021 Our Youth, Our Future survey. Participants were 4,373 AI adolescents from Grades 6–12 across the contiguous USA. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the latent variable of family functioning. Structural paths and interaction terms between peer use and family functioning were added to the SEM to explore direct and moderating effects.

Family cohesion and parental monitoring were best represented by a second-order latent variable of family functioning, which was related to later initiation and lower alcohol use frequency.

The findings regarding the initiation of alcohol use may be applicable to prevention programs, with family functioning serving as a protective factor for the initiation of alcohol use. Programs working toward alcohol prevention may be best served by focusing on family-based programs.

The latent variable of family functioning is appropriate for use in AI samples. Family functioning, which is an inherent resilience factor in AI communities, was shown to be protective against harmful alcohol use behaviors.

Alcohol and tobacco consumption are significant public health concerns and considered some of the riskiest behaviors among students. Despite strong indications of heavy consumption of these substances, certain sections of the student population remain unexplored regarding their consumption patterns and associated factors, including research scholars pursuing Doctor of Philosophy degrees. This study aims to explore the patterns and correlations of consumption of alcohol and tobacco among doctoral students in three Indian universities.

A cross-sectional study was conducted on a total of 530 scholars from three central universities, Aligarh Muslim University, Banaras Hindu University and Jawahar Lal Nehru University, and focused on two substances (alcohol and tobacco) frequently used by students in India. Bi-variate analysis and penalized logistic regressions were applied to analyse the prevalence and associated factors of alcohol, smoking and smokeless tobacco among doctoral students.

Tobacco consumption was observed to be the dominant form of substance use among doctoral students. Findings revealed that 34% of scholars smoked and 25% consumed smokeless tobacco daily and around 14% consumed alcohol at least once a week. Major significant correlates of substance consumption among scholars were found to be gender, religion, parental mortality, dissatisfaction with academic performance and stress about future career/employment. Significant variation in substance use patterns was observed among universities.

This study provides first-hand evidence on substance use patterns and the correlates among doctoral students in three Indian universities. Findings indicate the implementation of specific intervention programs for mental health and counselling for this section of students to prevent substance use addiction would be beneficial.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how different trajectories of emotional symptoms relate to alcohol use in adolescence.

In all, 431 participants (majority female), aged approximately 13 years at baseline were followed over three years and reported on their emotional symptoms and alcohol use. Latent class growth analyses explored different trajectories of emotional symptoms and regression models were run to relate these trajectories to alcohol use (full standard drink, and binge drinking) at 36-month follow-up (age 16 years).

While the majority of adolescents were best characterised by low-stable emotional symptoms, those with high-stable symptoms were more likely to be have consumed a full standard drink of alcohol and binge drunk when aged 16 years.

Findings highlight the importance of prevention and early intervention, particularly targeting adolescents with elevated stable emotional symptoms who were more likely to be using alcohol at 16 years of age.

The present study is one of the first longitudinal investigations into the use of alcohol by community adolescents with different emotional symptom trajectories.

No studies have evaluated the relationship between cognitive impairment and alcohol treatment outcomes amongst older drinkers. This study aims to explore the extent of cognitive impairment amongst older adults seeking alcohol treatment and examine the relationship between cognitive impairment, treatment retention and alcohol use following treatment.

The study used data from the Drink Wise Age Well programme; an alcohol intervention service for older adults (aged 50+). The Montreal Cognitive Assessment was used to screen for cognitive impairment; alcohol use was assessed using the alcohol use disorders identification test.

In total, 531 participants completed the assessment at treatment entry. Over half the sample were male (57%), with a mean age of 60 years (Standard deviation: 7.09). Almost half (48.4%) had cognitive impairment at the entry to treatment: 51.6% had a normal cognitive function, 41.4% had mild cognitive impairment, 5.8% had moderate cognitive impairment and 1.1% had severe cognitive impairment. Cognitive impairment was not associated with increased treatment drop-out and was not predictive of alcohol use following treatment. Alcohol treatment was associated with a significant improvement in cognitive functioning.

This study suggests there may be a significant amount of unidentified cognitive impairment amongst older adults attending alcohol treatment. Assessment and routine screening for cognitive impairment in drug and alcohol services may help in care planning and setting treatment goals; in the absence of routine screening opportunities for treatment planning and intervention may be missed.

To examine a possible link between substance use and risky sexual behaviour, a cross‐sectional study was conducted among 357 inmates across four South African prisons involved in a pre‐release intervention programme for parolees. About 93% of the participants reported using alcohol and 52% used marijuana prior to imprisonment, while 56% reported previous occurrence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Logistic regression analyses explored the impact of substance use on intention to reduce risky sexual behaviour. Age and inconsistent use of condoms were positively associated with having an STI prior to incarceration, while reported alcohol and marijuana intake had no effect. Never using condoms before was highly associated with lower intention to engage in preventive behaviours upon release. It can be concluded that inmates demonstrate high levels of substance use and engagement in risky sexual behaviours. Targeted pre‐release substance abuse interventions are essential to reduce the burden of disease amongst offenders.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association between alcohol abstinence and illicit drug use during early adulthood, and compares abstinence to moderate drinking and binge drinking, regrouped in different frequencies.

A total of 5,968 young male adults who completed the questionnaires were selected for the analyses. Alcohol abstinent participants were compared to moderate drinkers (who did not experience binge drinking during the previous 12 months), and casual, monthly, weekly and daily binge drinkers in terms of prevalence of drug use during early adulthood.

Alcohol abstinence was associated with higher risks of drug use than moderate drinking (odds ratio (OR)>3) for most of drugs, especially last-stage drugs: crystal meth, solvents, spice and heroin (6.50<OR<13.50). Such findings encourage rethinking prevention among alcohol abstainers who were so far considered at low risk of drug use.

The main limitations of the study are the fact that it is cross-sectional, gender-blind and focussing on Swiss native who are less vulnerable than migrants.

High-risk subjects should be identified among young people who do not drink in order to develop specific preventive interventions.

This study is one of the first that compare alcohol abstinence, moderate drinking and binge drinking. Separate results covering 15 different drugs are presented.