Risk profiles among adolescent nonmedical opioid users in the United States

Although prior research has provided data on nonmedical use of opioids in adolescents, studies examining the heterogeneity of risk are limited. The present study extends prior research by deepening the understanding of adolescent nonmedical opioid use by specifying empirically meaningful profiles of risk. Using data on adolescent non-medical opioid users (N=1783) from the 2008 US National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), latent class analysis and multinomial logistic regression were employed to identify latent classes and determine the effects of covariates on class membership. Four latent classes provided the best fit to the data. Classes consisted of a low risk class (33.7%), a high delinquency/low substance use class (17.8%), a high substance use/low delinquency class (34.2%), and finally a high risk class (14.3%) characterized by high levels of both substance use and delinquent behavior. Study findings advance the understanding of adolescent nonmedical opioid use by specifying distinct latent classes. Results suggest that intervention efforts can fruitfully target a number of risk domains especially programs that enhance effective parenting and supervision.