To explore how predictors of drug used, described in the literature relate to four different types of substances – alcohol, marijuana, psychedelics and an aggregate measure of more serious drug use – to assess the processes that underlie their use.
Literature background: Research indicates that street youths are drawn from homes characterized by multiple problems that might lead to alcohol and drug use. Findings also suggest that parental actions tend to play a more significant role than do verbal messages. Thus, regardless of whether substance-using parents encourage or discourage substance use, their children are more likely to be substance abusers. Street youth spend a considerable amount of time on the street, immersed in an environment that may leave them at risk for drug and alcohol abuse. Serious drug users suggest that drug use is a characteristic of a preferred adult street lifestyle and subculture. The street lifestyle is also characterised by irregular employment.
Population: 200 male homeless male street youth.
Methods: Structured individual interviews were conducted with each participant.
Findings: The data indicated that long-term homelessness influences hard-drug use, whereas drug- and alcohol-using peers influence the use of alcohol, marihuana and psychedelic drugs. Participations in property crime increase street youths’ use of all types of drugs and alcohol, whereas drug distribution is linked to greater soft-drug use. Job histories and depression are linked to alcohol and hard-drug use, where-as self-blame for unemployment increases alcohol use.
Conclusion: Homeless youths tend to come to the streets with backgrounds that promote drug and alcohol use. Once on the street their risk for drug and alcohol use is exacerbated by their street experiences, including cultural supports for substance use, drug-using peers and involvement in a criminal lifestyle that finances heavy drug and alcohol use. The results also show that different factors are more strongly related to the use of different drugs.
Recommendations: Further work should explore the various causal influences these various factors have on the use of different types of drugs. It is only through the information about the behaviours of these youths that strategies for successful intervention and prevention can be developed.
Publication Date:
1999
Pages:
3-26
Volume:
31
Issue:
1
Journal Name:
Youth and Society
Location:
Thousand Oaks, CA, USA