Substance Use and Academic Outcomes among High School Seniors: Examining the Influence of Emotional Academic Engagement

Substance use is prevalent among adolescents, with two-thirds trying alcohol and half trying an illicit drug by twelfth grade (Miech et al., 2015). Substance use is known to affect academic performance. This study utilized nationally representative data from the 2013 Monitoring the Future twelfth grade survey to examine the relationships between substance use, skipping school, grades, and academic engagement. One-quarter of respondents (26%) had never used a substance. The majority (67%) had used at least one substance during the past year. Substance use during their lifetime but not during the past year was uncommon (7%). Lifetime non-users were less likely than past-year users to skip school during the past month and to have low grades. Lifetime non-users also had greater academic self-efficacy and emotional academic engagement relative to past-year users. These findings underscore the importance of screening and intervention for substance use to promote academic achievement and adolescent wellbeing.

The Relation between Substance Use and Medication Adherence among HIV Positive Substance Users in Residential Treatment

Poor medication adherence is problematic among HIV positive, low-income African-American substance users. Substance use has been shown to be associated with poor medication adherence, though we do not know the mechanism that underlies this relationship. Lack of positive environmental rewards and the propensity to discount delayed rewards may be possible mechanisms to explain this relationship. Using baseline data from a randomized controlled trial, we examined the relationships between substance use and medication adherence, testing both environmental rewards and delay discounting as independent mediators. There was a main effect of substance use on adherence, such that high frequency of substance use predicted poor adherence. There was also a main effect of environmental rewards on adherence, such that a lack of environmental reinforcement predicted poor adherence. This study shed light on the processes that contribute to low adherence, namely substance use and lack of environmental contingencies, and suggests important targets for intervention.

Effect of Addiction Modeling Reinforcement Schedules on Delay Discounting

Elevated delay discounting, in which delayed rewards quickly lose value as a function of time, is associated with substance use and abuse. Currently, the direction of causation is unclear: while some research indicates that elevated delay discounting leads to future substance use, it is also possible that chronic substance use and specifically the rate of reinforcement associated with drug use, leads to elevated delay discounting. This project aims to examine the latter possibility. 47 participants completed ten 30-minute daily sessions of a visual attention task, and were reinforced at a rate intended to model drug use (fixed ratio 1) or drug abstinence (fixed ratio 10). Baseline and post-training rates of delay discounting were assessed for hypothetical $50 and $1000. Area under the curve of the indifference points as a function of delay was calculated. A greater area under the curve suggests more self-control, whereas a lower value represents more impulsiveness. Results at the monetary value of both $50 and $1000 showed increased impulsivity in relation to the control for both the FR1 and FR10 groups indicating that the two schedules may both model drug use.

Assessing teen risk behavior and later drug use

Gemstone Team Risky Business