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Substance Abuse Case Study Essay

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The case study “Gender and racial/ethnic differences in patterns of adolescent alcohol use and associations with adolescent and adult illicit drug use” seeks to explore the effects and trends of alcohol use within certain groups. It is well known that alcohol is the most widely used substance in the United States. Alcohol use brings negative social and psychological effects to both adults and adolescents. However, certain groups of alcohol users report different effects. The data for this study was collected by using LCAs to separate the data by gender and by race as well. The study specifically asked questions that explored whether adolescents had problems with school, family, relationships, legal issues, or sex as a result of alcohol. It was found that white adolescents were overwhelming more frequent drinkers. Hispanic adolescents were not far behind. The study also discovered that frequent heavy drinkers with a high risk of problems reported more negative consequences and regrets as a result of drinking. Males were also more prevalent in this category than females. However, within that group of high risk frequent heavy drinkers, African Americans reported less social problems than both males …show more content…

If a male or female was identified as a frequent heavy drinker, the odds that they used marijuana rose substantially. As these adolescents grew in to young adults, high marijuana use was linked with cocaine use. As stated before, those identified as frequent heavy drinkers were also associated with a higher susceptibility to cocaine use. White males still reigned as the most likely users. However, in both Hispanic groups, high alcohol use was only connected to cocaine use. In African American males, high alcohol use was most likely associated with marijuana use instead. Among the females in this study, alcohol use and cocaine use did not show a high association in any of the racial

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