The article, “Latent Class Groups of Concurrent Substance Use Among Adolescents in an Urban Community: Correlates With Mental Health, Access to Drugs and Alcohol, and Risk Perception,” has been published in SAj.
In this commentary, the authors state that concurrent substance use among adolescents has been associated with an increase in physical and mental health problems. These outcomes tend to be exacerbated among adolescents of color in underserved urban settings. The purpose of their study was to understand alcohol and concurrent drug use patterns among adolescents in an underserved urban community to provide targeted prevention and treatment recommendations.
In the AUTHORS’ OWN WORDS, they relate the importance of their work:
“There is a need in the adolescent substance use literature to further understand Latent class (LC) group membership characteristics of concurrent substance use among adolescents living in under-served urban communities. Primary aims for this study were to: 1. Use LCA to identify and investigate patterns of concurrent substance use among adolescents from an under-served urban community in the northeastern United States. 2. Examine corollary clinical features of substance use with LCA patterns of concurrent substance use among adolescents of color.”
“Concurrent substance use during adolescence has innumerable unfavorable developmental outcomes. Our findings have important implications for both prevention and practice, and provide a step in understanding concurrent substance use and associations with mental health and other corollary clinical features. Recognizing patterns of alcohol and substance use in under-served communities can support interventions targeted to such groups without disregard for other environmental factors that promote the likelihood of access to substances.”