US teen drug, alcohol use ups sex and behaviour
risks
Agence France-Presse - 10/17/2008 4:01 AM GMT
Children who try drugs or alcohol before age 15 run a greater risk
of being substance-dependent as adults, contracting sexually
transmitted diseases, dropping out of school or being convicted of
a crime, a study showed.
And girls who dabble in drugs and alcohol early on are more
likely to become pregnant before they are 21, added the study,
published in the October issue of Psychological Science, which
followed 1,037 children from the age of three until 32.
At ages 13 and 15, the youngsters were asked if they had sniffed
glue, gasoline or other inhalants, of if they had used illegal
drugs or drunk alcoholic beverages in the past year.
The children were also assessed for conduct disorders --
fighting, bullying, destroying property, telling lies, truancy and
stealing -- before their teen years, and their family history,
including whether either parent had a criminal record and whether
the child was mistreated.
Children who tried alcohol or drugs early on "were two to three
times more likely than non-early-exposed adolescents to be
substance dependent, to have herpes infection, to have had an early
pregnancy, and to have failed to obtain educational
qualifications," the study showed.
Youngsters who were exposed to drugs and alcohol before 15 also
had "significantly more criminal convictions" than those who were
not.
But although teens with a history of behavior problems were
twice as likely to try drugs or alcohol prior to age 15 as were
youngsters with no conduct-problem history, half the children who
dabbled with drink and drugs early on had no prior history of
behavior issues, the study found.
"Findings from this study are consistent with the message that
early substance use leads to significant problems in adolescents'
future lives, or the message that drugs are bad for kids, versus
the message that young adolescents with a history of problems are
just more likely to use drugs early and experience poor outcomes,"
said the study's lead author, Candice Odgers of the University of
California, Irvine.
"Even adolescents with no prior history of behavioral problems
or family history of substance abuse problems were at risk for poor
health outcomes if they used substances prior to age 15," she
said.
Alcohol was the substance most commonly abused by the young
teens.
