As many as one in three teens tried an illicit drug this year, and almost half (45.7%) will use alcohol. Despite the widespread use of anti-drug campaigns in schools, the increasing popularity of student-led anti-drug initiatives, and the pleading of parents everywhere, teen substance use continues to impact a significant portion of teenagers.
What are the factors that send some teens to experimenting with drugs and alcohol while others abstain?
Why Do Teens Use Drugs?
Researchers have uncovered many risk factors and underlying causes that can increase the chance of substance abuse in a preteen, teen, or young adult.
Risk Factors for Teen Substance Use
One of the biggest risks for substance abuse disorder or substance use later in life is early substance use. The younger someone is exposed to substances, including tobacco, alcohol, illicit drugs, and cannabis, the more likely they are to continue substance use for a lifetime. Early substance use before the age of 14 can lead to a 4x increase in the risk of substance use disorder.
Other risk factors include:
Genetic and mental factors
- Family history of addiction
- Mental illness
- Feeling anxious, stressed, or shy
Personality traits
- High pressure to succeed
- Impulsive personality
- Poor self-control
- Difficult personality
Environmental factors
- Drug use in the home/ parental substance abuse
- Community with a high saturation of drug use
- Abuse, neglect, or traumatic experience
- Lack of communication about drugs at home
- Lack of drug education at school
- Lack of supervision/ parental involvement
- Boredom
- Availability of drugs - easily accessible in homes and medicine cabinets
- Lack of knowledge about the dangers of OTC or Rx medicines
- Early experimentation with drugs
- Casual use of drugs at parties or on weekends
- Peers who use drugs
The Teen Brain is Primed for Reward Seeking and New Experiences
The teen brain is still developing. The brain’s reward center matures first, typically between the ages of 10 - 13 years old. Pleasurable and new, novel experiences activate this part of the brain. The last part of the brain to mature is the prefrontal cortex—that’s the part of the brain responsible for decision-making, logic, and consequences. This portion of the brain doesn’t fully mature until around age 25.
In other words, your teen’s brain seeks fun new experiences and can’t fully understand long-term consequences.
Just because your teen’s brain is primed for experimentation doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll try drugs or alcohol.
However, the chance they may experiment increases with every additional risk factor they’re dealing with.
Genetics and Mental Health Contribute to Substance Abuse
Although genes can play a role in addiction, they are not the only deciding factor. Genes are responsible for about 50% of a person’s risk for substance abuse; biological factors such as an increased euphoric response or quicker response to drugs can make substance use more attractive.
Research suggests that mental illness and substance use disorders are deeply connected. More than 50% of drug abusers are also dealing with a mental illness. For some, drugs are used to self-medicate symptoms of existing mental illness; for others, drug use causes changes in the brain that may result in mental illness taking root and growing.
Some Personality Traits Could Indicate Risk of Drug Use
Certain personality traits can increase a teen’s risk of addiction. A study in the journal Health Psychology linked temperament-related personality traits such as a “difficult temperament,” poor self-control, and “deviance-prone attitudes” with early drug experimentation.
Even so-called “positive” personality traits could indicate a possibility for future drug use and addiction. Teens who feel pressured to succeed at all costs and who feel the need for perfection in appearance, performance, academic, and extracurricular activities may be driven towards drugs as study or weight-loss aids.
Ease of Access Can Lead to Drug Use
Often, teens experiment with some of the prescription medications found in their homes, such as anti-anxiety medications, ADD/ ADHD medications, anti-depressants, and prescription painkillers.
Many teens will casually experiment with prescription or over-the-counter drugs with a misguided sense of security that these are safer than illicit drugs because a medical professional prescribes them.
You can eliminate the risk of ease of access by simply securing powerful prescription medications in a locked medicine box. The Safer Lock Box uses a 4-digit code to help secure opioids and other prescription medications, removing the ease of access that can lead to experimentation.
Community and Environmental Factors that Lead to Drug Use
When a teen has been raised in a home or community where drug use is prevalent, their chances of addiction later in life become quite high. Not only does early exposure to drug use normalize it, but the trauma that can accompany living with substance abuse can increase the risk of addiction later.
Even teens who have grown up in seemingly “idyllic” home environments can still be at risk for addiction. A teen whose parents never talk about the risks associated with drug use, or who aren’t around to provide supervision, can be a prime candidate for drug experimentation or addiction. Add a subpar drug prevention program from school or simply boredom, and this can become the perfect environment for teen addiction.
Peer influence can also contribute to substance abuse. Research has shown that peer pressure is strongly associated with substance abuse in both positive and negative ways. If your teen’s friend group is abstaining from substance use, there’s a better chance of your teen avoiding it as well. On the other hand, if your teen’s friend group is experimenting with drugs or alcohol, your teen may follow the influence of the crowd.
Preventing Teen Drug Use
With so many possible reasons why teens use drugs, there’s no single tactic to help them avoid substance use. However, many of the risk factors for teen drug use can be controlled. Have frank conversations with your teens about the dangers of drug use, especially at an early age. Encourage activities with peer groups that abstain. Don’t set an example you don’t want them to follow. Keep all prescription medications in your home locked up to avoid experimentation. And get your teen help and support if you notice signs of mental illness, stress, or personality traits that may indicate a risk for drug use.
