Co-occurrence of substance use and loneliness as a risk factor for adolescent hopelessness

This research among a sample of 1,915 Mississippi adolescents investigated whether lonely adolescents who use illicit substances were at increased risk of hopelessness. Relative risk of scoring within the severe hopelessness range was 6.9 for non-substance users who were lonely and 4.2 for substance users who were not lonely. Yet, relative risk for severe hopelessness in substance-using lonely adolescents was 25.2. Lonely, substance-using adolescents were 25 times more likely to be severely hopeless than the reference group composed of non-substance using, not-lonely adolescents. Lonely adolescents who get drunk also were 15.9 times more likely to be severely hopeless than the reference group. Because hopelessness often is an indicator of suicidal behavior, these results may have important implications for school health adolescent suicide prevention efforts.