Predicting Hallucinogen Use During Adolescence and Early Adulthood in Justice-Involved Youth Using the Dual Systems Model: Does Salience Vary Across the Life-Course?

Abstract

<h4>Background</h4>Hallucinogen use among justice-involved youth presents an understudied public health problem. Variation in cognitive development of impulse control and sensation-seeking may be relevant for predicting this behavior. That said, there remains a dearth of research which has examined these relationships from a life-course perspective. The present study addresses this gap in the literature by examining sensation-seeking and impulse control as predictors of hallucinogen use and whether these relationships are moderated by age among a sample of justice-involved youth.<h4>Methods</h4>The Pathways to Desistance data were analyzed. Mixed effects modeling was used to assess direct and moderated relationships of interest. Results: Findings indicated that lower impulse control predicted greater hallucinogen use likelihood and that this effect diminished in magnitude as youth aged through adolescence. Greater sensation-seeking predicted increased likelihood of hallucinogen use, but effects were not moderated by age. However, the direct effect of sensation-seeking was attenuated when interaction effects were included.<h4>Conclusions</h4>These results suggest that programming within juvenile correctional settings may benefit from focusing on impulse control as a mechanism to reduce hallucinogen use among justice-involved youth. Implications are relevant primarily for prevention programming within juvenile justice systems rather than general youth populations.

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