Inhalant use among antisocial youth: prevalence and correlates

The current (2.9%), annual (19.6%), and lifetime (34.3%) prevalence of inhalant use among 475 youth (M age = 15.5; SD = 1.5; 87.4% male) on probation in a western state of the United States was assessed. Inhalant users reported significantly less family support and cohesiveness and lower self-esteem, and significantly more lifetime thoughts of suicide and suicide attempts, neighborhood gang activity, peer and parental substance abuse, intentions to engage in illegal behavior, substance-related criminality, and substance abuse than did nonusers. Ethnicity, self-esteem, suicidality, number of substance-using peers, and extent of substance-related criminality significantly discriminated inhalant users from nonusers in a logistic regression analysis. Multiple linear regression analyses indicated that age, perceived school ability, age at initiation of alcohol use, self-esteem, and substance-related criminality significantly predicted age at onset of inhalant use (R2 = .30). Age at initiation of inhalant use, gang membership, truancy, and substance-related criminality significantly predicted lifetime frequency of inhalant use (R2 = .20). Study findings indicate that inhalant-using delinquents evidence significantly greater antisocial attitudes, personal and familial dysfunction, and substance abuse, than do their non-inhalant-using counterparts.