Since the U.S. surgeon general’s 2023 advisory on social media and teen mental health, public concern has skyrocketed around adolescents’ digital lives. Major news organizations and even state governments have pinned social media apps as addictive, dangerous, and the cause of the youth mental health crisis. In turn, calls to ban teens from social media apps have started to emerge, with mixed reception from policymakers nationwide.
Does Social Media Raise Teens’ Odds for Drug Use, Risky Sex?.
Posted: Thu, 30 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, New York, and Washington reported deaths from counties that accounted for ≥75% of drug overdose deaths in the state in 2017, per SUDORS funding requirements; all other jurisdictions reported deaths from the full jurisdiction. Jurisdictions were included if data were available for at least one 6-month period (July–December 2019, January–June 2020, July–December 2020, January–June 2021, or July–December 2021). Researchers in this study argue that key knowledge gaps currently hinder the initiation of screening, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment efforts for teens with substance use disorders. For example, previous methods evaluating persistence of substance use disorder tended to treat substance use disorder as one broad category, without looking at severity.
Our study also found that a history of maltreatment has a positive association with adolescent drug abuse. Those adolescents with episodes of maltreatment were considered to have negative growth exposure, as their childhoods were negatively affected by traumatic events. Some significant associations were https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/8-tips-on-ow-to-spend-holidays-sober/ found between maltreatment and adolescent drug abuse, although the former factor was limited to the female gender [25, 30, 36]. One possible reason for the contrasting results between genders is the different sample populations, which only covered child welfare centers [36] and foster care [30].
Risks can increase based on the drug of abuse, if other drugs are involved, and how long the abuse has been taking place. In one way or another, peer pressure is involved in around half of first-time substance use. Keeping up with peers and “fitting in” are subtle and often subconscious ways that teens wind up entangled with drugs and alcohol.
During this period, adolescents have a strong inclination toward experimentation, curiosity, susceptibility to peer pressure, rebellion against authority, and poor self-worth, which makes such individuals vulnerable to drug abuse [2]. During adolescence, the basic development process generally involves changing relations between the individual and the multiple levels of the context within which the young person is accustomed. Variation in the substance and timing of these relations promotes diversity in adolescence and represents sources of risk or protective factors across this life period [6]. All these factors are crucial to helping young people develop their full potential and attain the best health in the transition to adulthood. Abusing drugs impairs the successful transition to adulthood by impairing the development of critical thinking and the learning of crucial cognitive skills [7].
If your child is at a party and someone hands them a beer or a joint, they may take it without even thinking. If they decide not to, they may worry about what the reaction would be, or that they’re missing out on something that everybody gets to experience. Peer pressure is a daily fixture of middle and high school life, and it helps to realize this when trying to explain your teen’s actions. If untreated, mental health conditions can persist into adulthood and limit quality of life. In 2021 and 2022, just over half of teens (55%) reported discussing their mental or emotional health with their health care provider in the past year; and only 20% reported discussing transitions in their health care services that will go into effect when they turn 18. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, drug overdose deaths increased for both adolescent males and females, with an initial spike among males.
Potential bystanders††† were present in 1,252 (66.9%) deaths, and 1,089 (59.4%) decedents had no pulse when first responders arrived. Among deaths with one or more potential bystanders present, no documented bystander response was reported for 849 (67.8%), primarily because of spatial separation from decedents (52.9%) and lack of awareness that decedents were using drugs (22.4%). Approximately teen drug abuse one quarter of deaths had documentation of ingestion (23.8%), smoking (23.5%), and snorting (23.0%); evidence of injection was documented in 7.8% of deaths. Thirty-five percent of adolescent decedents had documented opioid use history, and 14.1% had evidence of a previous overdose; 10.9% had evidence of substance use disorder treatment, and 3.3% had evidence of current treatment.
More than 50% of teens with mental health needs do not access treatment, and access gaps are starkest for LGBTQ+ youths and youths of color. The shortage of therapists is so severe that it would be impossible to narrow the treatment access gap through expanding the workforce alone. Teens desperately need mental health supports that can meet them where they are — online — sooner than the mental health care landscape is able to change. Importantly, as studies indicate compounding detrimental effects of adolescent and prenatal drug exposure on neurological and cognitive outcomes (Jacobsen et al., 2007b,c), not all studies outlined here control for prenatal drug exposure.