Stressful life events and drug use among adolescents

Abstract

The authors investigated the hypothesis that increased amounts of stress during and/or prior to adolescence would be associated with elevated use or abuse of drug substances by adolescents. Through the study the authors also provided further information regarding the usefulness of various techniques of life event surveying in the measurement of presumptive stress among adolescents. Using a multivariate analysis of the data, a number of conclusions were drawn with the overall conclusion that increased life stress levels are significantly associated with elevated drug use.