Environmental paths that inform adolescent substance use prevention

Promoting healthy development among youth is one of the grand challenges taken on by social work. Because substance use can negatively affect the health and development of adolescents, this study examined environmental factors affecting substance use among adolescents ages 12 through 17 by gender using data from 17,736 adolescents in the 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. It was hypothesized that environmental inputs such as parenting, involvement in extracurricular activities, and school engagement are associated with substance use differently based on gender. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesis. This model explained 13% of the variance for males and 19% for females. Positive parenting, participation in extracurricular activities, and school engagement were associated with substance use. Results showed the effect of extracurricular activities on substance use was larger for female adolescents than for male adolescents, and that gender moderated the indirect effect of parenting on substance use. Parenting, involvement in extracurricular activities, and school engagement are important areas for preventing adolescent substance use in the spirit of promoting their health, and the effect of prevention efforts in these areas can depend on the adolescent's gender.