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Longitudinal patterns of polysubstance use throughout adolescence: association with adult substance use and psychosocial outcomes controlling for preadolescent risk factors in a male cohort

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Abstract

Purpose

Inconsistent reports raise the question of the extent to which poor adult outcomes are associated with adolescent polysubstance use (PSU: alcohol, marijuana, other illicit drugs) above and beyond earlier risk factors.

Methods

Early adulthood substance-related and psychosocial outcomes were examined in association with age 13 to 17 developmental patterns of PSU in boys from urban, low SES neighborhoods (N = 926). Three classes obtained by latent growth modeling described low/non-users (N = 565, 61.0%), lower risk PSU (later onset, occasional use, 2 ≤ substances; N = 223, 24.1%), and higher risk PSU (earlier onset, frequent use, 3 ≥ substances; N = 138, 14.9%). Preadolescent individual, familial and social predictors of adolescent PSU patterns were used as covariates.

Results

Adolescent PSU contributed to both age-24 substance-related outcomes (frequency of alcohol, drug use, and getting drunk, risky behaviors under influence, and use-related problems) and psychosocial outcomes (no high school diploma, professional or financial strain, ASP symptoms, criminal record) over and above preadolescent risk factors. Controlling for preadolescent risk factors, adolescent PSU made a more important contribution to adult substance use outcomes (increasing the risk by about 110%) than to psychosocial outcomes (16.8% risk increase). PSU classes showed poorer adjustment for all age-24 substance use, and for various psychosocial outcomes than low/non-users. Higher risk polysubstance users also reported poorer outcomes than their lower risk peers for most substance use outcomes, and for professional or financial strain and criminal record.

Conclusion

Findings highlight the contribution of adolescent PSU in a dose–response fashion, over and above preadolescent risk factors, on both homotypic and heterotypic outcomes in early adulthood.

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Data availability

The dataset supporting the present report is not publicly available. Availability on request by qualified scientists will be considered after handing in a data request (https://grip-info.ca/acces-aux-donnees/). Formal agreement and ethical clearance to regulate data storage and use will be required. All data were anonymized in accordance with ethical guidelines.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the families and the participants of the Montreal Longitudinal and Experimental Study for their collaboration to this project, and the staff of the Research Unit on Children’s Psychosocial Maladjustment for data collection and management.

Funding

We thank the Québec Ministry of Health, the Fond Québécois de la Recherche sur la Société et la Culture, Canada’s Social Science and Humanities Research Council, and the University of Montréal for financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Montreal, 3050 Edouard-Montpetit, Suite 225, Montréal, QC, H3T 1J7, Canada

    Rene Carbonneau & Richard E. Tremblay

  2. Sainte-Justine Hospital Research Center, Montréal, Canada

    Rene Carbonneau, Frank Vitaro, Mara Brendgen & Richard E. Tremblay

  3. Research Unit on Children’s Psychosocial Maladjustment, University of Montreal, Montréal, Canada

    Rene Carbonneau, Frank Vitaro, Mara Brendgen & Richard E. Tremblay

  4. School of Psychoeducation, University of Montreal, Montréal, Canada

    Frank Vitaro

  5. Department of Psychology, University of Quebec in Montreal, Montréal, Canada

    Mara Brendgen

  6. Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Montréal, Canada

    Richard E. Tremblay

  7. School of Public Health and Population Sciences, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Richard E. Tremblay

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  1. Rene Carbonneau
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  2. Frank Vitaro
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  4. Richard E. Tremblay
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rene Carbonneau.

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On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author declares that there are no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures contributing to this work complied with the ethical standards of the relevant national and institutional committees on human experimentation and with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments. This study was approved by the University of Montreal’s Institutional Review Board.

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Informed written consent of the participants was obtained from all participants and their parents (when applicable), for each assessment wave, prior to their inclusion in the study.

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Carbonneau, R., Vitaro, F., Brendgen, M. et al. Longitudinal patterns of polysubstance use throughout adolescence: association with adult substance use and psychosocial outcomes controlling for preadolescent risk factors in a male cohort. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 58, 1469–1481 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-023-02454-8

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