Adolescents who struggle with substance use following domestic violence in their childhood

• Main Author: Birna Lind Pálmadóttir 2000-
• Other Authors: Háskólinn í Reykjavík
• Format: Bachelor Thesis
• Language: Icelandic
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Sálfræði; Ofbeldi; Kynferðislegt ofbeldi; Fíkniefnaneysla; Unglingar; Fjölskyldan; Psychology; Sex crimes; Substance abuse; Adolescents; Families; Violence; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1946/44744

Substance use among adolescents is a significant public-health concern. Adolescence is a period of development characterized by increased risk-taking behavior and peer pressure. Physical and sexual abuse is a very serious form of domestic violence that, unfortunately, too many individuals have experienced. Research has shown that victims of child abuse have a higher tendency to start using drugs, compared to those with no such history. The current study aims to investigate how experiencing physical or sexual abuse might affect adolescent substance use, while taking account of families’ financial status, family patterns, sex, and age differences. Data was collected by the Icelandic Centre for Social Research and Analysis, study titled “Youth in Iceland 2016”. Of the 10.717 responses, a random sample of 2000 participants were employed in this analysis. The participants’ age ranged from 16 to 21 years old (M = 17.3, SD = 1.6). Regression analysis was used to assess the relationship between substance use and other variables. Stepwise regression was conducted to assess which variables explained the greatest amount of variance in substance use. Results showed that (1) age, (2) having been sexually abused, (3) family structure, and (4) sex, were the only variables that had a significant relationship with substance use. Interestingly, while the sexual abuse variables were significant, the physical abuse variables were not significantly related to substance use in the final Model. Keywords: Physical abuse, sexual abuse, substance use, adolescents, family structure Vímuefnanotkun unglinga er mikið lýðheilsuáhyggjuefni. Unglingsárin eru þroskatímabil sem einkennist af aukinni áhættuhegðun og hópþrýsting. Líkamlegt og kynferðislegt ofbeldi er mjög alvarleg tegund heimilisofbeldis sem, því miður, of margir einstaklingar hafa orðið fyrir. Rannsóknir hafa sýnt að fórnarlömb ofbeldis hafa meiri tilhneigingu til að byrja nota vímuefni, samanborið við þá sem hafa ekki upplifað slíkt. Markmið þessarar rannsóknar var að kanna ...