Life events concentration around the exacerbation of substance abuse in adolescents

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between life events and adolescent substance abuse. Data of this study were obtained from the database of a research project titled "Family and Group Therapies for Adolescent Alcohol Abuse" (NIH/NIAAA Grant No. R01 AA12178; M. D. Stanton, Ph.D., Principal Investigator, The Morton Center, Louisville, Kentucky). The participants were 120 adolescents between 13 and 18 years of age from the metropolitan area of Louisville, KY. Life events were measured obtaining reports from adolescents and their parents, using two separate questionnaires, the LEQ and the PERI-LES. This allowed consideration of the mechanisms by which life events experienced by adolescents their parents impact the adolescents' addictive behaviors. Life events were analyzed using global indexes as well as individual meaningful clusters. Substance abuse was measured using two indexes indicating severity and extent of drugs and alcohol use. The measures of substance abuse were adjusted to reflect substance use's reports obtained at intake and at follow up. This allowed a more accurate measure of the effective substance use. Study results revealed significant correlations between certain clusters of life events and substance abuse. In particular, life events related to adolescents' Deviant behaviors, and Family and Parents related events were significantly and positively related to substance abuse. Adolescents' events in the Autonomy cluster were significantly and negatively related to substance abuse. Correlation analyses of the parents' questionnaire indicated that Education events were related to lower adolescent substance abuse. This finding confirm the importance of examining life events occurred in the adolescents as well as in the parents' lives to have a broader picture of adolescent's addictive behaviors. The results of this study are preliminary; therefore, they have to be interpreted with caution.