Citation

Roehler DR, Heinze JE, Stoddard SA, Bauermeister JA, Zimmerman MA. Emerg. Adulthood 2018; 6(4): 235-242.

Affiliation

Michigan Youth Violence Prevention Center, Ann Arbor, MI, United States.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/2167696817725455

PMID

31656695

PMCID

PMC6814165

Abstract

This study investigated whether being exposed to violence early in life is a risk factor for substance use later in life. Tenets of the stress-coping model and the self-medication hypothesis guided the analyses. Participants included 850 individuals from an economically challenged, urban community in Flint, MI (83% Black/African American; 50% male). Exposure to violence was measured four times in sequential years during emerging adulthood (ages 20-23), and substance use four times during early-adulthood (ages 29-32). Multilevel growth models investigated the relationship between early exposure to violence and later rates of substance use. Youth who had above average exposure to violence during emerging adulthood had increasing substance use during early-adulthood compared to those with a below average score, after controlling for prior use. These findings may inform practitioners to screen for substance use among individuals exposed to violence, and intervene earlier before substance use becomes problematic.

Language: en

Keywords

Violence; alcohol use/abuse; health behavior; injury; substance use/abuse