Substance Use Among Youth

At a glance

  • Youth with substance use disorders have higher rates of physical and mental illnesses.
  • These youth also have diminished overall health and well-being, and they can potentially progress to addiction.
Youth standing on the deck of a tall building looking out into a city.

Overview

Regarding HIV and sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention, high-risk substance use is any use by adolescents of substances with a high risk of adverse outcomes. Adverse outcomes might range from injury, criminal justice involvement, school dropout, to loss of life.

High-risk substance use includes:

  • Misuse of prescription drugs.
  • Use of illicit drugs such as cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines, inhalants, hallucinogens, or ecstasy.
  • Use of injection drugs which have a high risk of blood-borne diseases such as HIV and hepatitis.

Why it's important

Most young people are in good health. Yet some youth are at increased risk for behaviors that can lead to poor health outcomes, such as high-risk substance use. Moreover, the majority of adults who have a substance use disorder started using substances during their teen and young adult years.

CDC data

  • 15% of high school students reported having ever used select illicit or injection drugs—cocaine, inhalants, heroin, methamphetamines, hallucinogens, or ecstasy.
  • 14% of students reported misusing prescription opioids.
  • Injection drug use places youth at direct risk for HIV. And in a broad sense drug use places youth at risk of overdose.
  • Youth opioid use is directly linked to sexual risk behaviors.
  • Students who report ever using prescription drugs—without a doctor's prescription—are more likely than other students to have been the victim of physical or sexual dating violence.
  • Drug use is associated with sexual risk behavior, experiencing violence, and mental health and suicide risks.

Source: CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Survey Data Summary & Trends Report: 2011–2021

Risk factors

Risk factors for youth high-risk substance use can include:

  • Family history of substance use.
  • Favorable parental attitudes regarding the behavior.
  • Poor parental monitoring.
  • Parental substance use.
  • Family rejection of sexual orientation or gender identity.
  • Association with delinquent or substance-using peers.
  • Lack of school connectedness.
  • Low academic achievement.
  • Childhood sexual abuse.
  • Mental health issues.

Prevention

Research has aided our understanding of factors that help buffer youth from risky behaviors, including substance use. These are known as protective factors. Some protective factors for high-risk substance use include:

  • Parent or family engagement.
  • Family support.
  • Parental disapproval of substance use.
  • Parental monitoring.
  • School connectedness.

See Also

A family picture of parents and three daughters smiling to the camera.
Healthy Youth Parent Resources
Parents play a big role keeping their child safe and healthy from infancy into their teen years.

What CDC is doing

  • Using surveillance data to explore risk and protective factors for youth substance use.
  • Researching youth substance use and its association with a variety of risks and behaviors.
  • Analyzing local and state policies on youth substance use prevention.
  • Conducted a pilot project—called Teens Linked to Care (TLC)—in high-risk rural communities.
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Content Source:
Adolescent and School Health; National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion