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Drug use and neurobehavioral, respiratory, and cognitive problems: precursors and mediators
Judith S Brook1, Stephen J Finch, Martin Whiteman
1Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York 10029-6574, USA.
Purpose:
To test a model of the early predictors and mediators of drug use and respiratory, neurobehavioral, and cognitive problems in adolescence and young adulthood.
Methods:
We prospectively examined self-reported measures of unconventional behavior, peer- and self-drug use, and self-reported health problems in a sample of 286 males and 327 females. The sample represented the northeastern United States at the time the data were first collected in 1975. The participants were assessed in early, middle, and late adolescence and in young adulthood. Latent variable structural equation models were used to examine the data.
Results:
Structural equation modeling conducted on the data provided support for the proposed longitudinal model. The findings indicated that adolescent drug use was associated indirectly with respiratory and directly with neurobehavioral and cognitive symptoms in young adulthood. Adolescent drug use during middle and late adolescence served as a mediator between unconventional behavior in early adolescence and health problems in young adulthood.
Conclusions:
A reduction in adolescent drug use may reduce respiratory and neurobehavioral and cognitive symptoms in young adulthood. This study identifies several points in the biopsychosocial pathways in adolescence leading to later health problems in young adulthood.