ARTICLES
Sensation Seeking, Puberty, and Nicotine, Alcohol, and Marijuana Use in Adolescence

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ABSTRACT

Objective:

To examine the relationship among nicotine, alcohol, and marijuana use; level of sensation seeking (SS); and pubertal development.

Method:

Subjects were early and middle adolescent males and females recruited from a psychiatric clinic (n = 77) and two general pediatric clinics (n = 131). SS was measured by using the Sensation Seeking Scale for Children. Pubertal development was measured with a modified Pubertal Development Scale that was completed by the adolescent and his/her parent about the adolescent. Adolescent self-reports of nicotine, alcohol, and marijuana use were also obtained using questionnaires.

Results:

SS was higher in males and females who reported nicotine and alcohol use and in males who reported marijuana use. SS was positively associated with pubertal development in males and females, even when controlling for age. Furthermore, SS mediated the relationship of pubertal development and drug use in males and females.

Conclusions:

The observation that SS mediates the relationship between pubertal development and drug use in males and females may contribute to understanding changes in drug use that are seen during adolescence. In addition, SS is associated with drug use and is easily measured in a variety of clinical settings.

Section snippets

Sensation Seeking is Associated With Drug Use

One factor that continues to emerge as highly associated with drug use in early and middle adolescence is sensation seeking (SS) (Kosten et al., 1994). SS, as defined by Zuckerman (1994, p. 27), is a trait characterized by the “seeking of varied, novel, complex, and intense sensations and experiences, and the willingness to take physical, social, legal, financial risks for the sake of such experiences.” SS is associated with earlier age of onset of drug use and abuse (Ball et al., 1994;Kosten

Subjects

Participants were 208 early and mid-adolescents between the ages of 11 and 14 years (age 12.76 ± 1.22). This age range was chosen for three reasons: (1) variability in pubertal development; (2) increases in the risk of onset of nicotine, alcohol, and marijuana use (DeWit et al., 1997); and (3) any drug use at this age is associated with significant drug-related morbidity in adulthood (Robins and Przybeck, 1985). Variability in SS status and drug use was established by recruiting volunteers from

Drug Use.

Any lifetime drug use is presented in Table 2. The original variables had seven ordinal categories, but these have been collapsed into three for clarity of presentation. The only significant difference in substance use by gender was smokeless tobacco use, with males being more likely to use it (χ2 [1, N = 207] = 6.30, p ≤ .01).

The mean score on the SS scale for males was 12.98 ± 5.05 and for females was 10.08 ± 5.82, with males having significantly higher SS total scores (t198 = 3.73, p

SS and Gender

Higher SS scores in male adolescents were observed in the current study, in agreement with previous findings in adolescent (Russo et al., 1993) and adult populations (Kosten et al., 1994).

SS and Pubertal Stage and Age

The association of age and SS is well described in adolescents (Russo et al., 1993) and adults (Ball et al., 1994;Kosten et al., 1994;Zuckerman et al., 1978). In the current study, however, there was no relationship between age and SS in males or females. The age range in the Russo et al. (1993) study was 9–15

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      Thus, pubertal status should be accounted for whenever possible, and researchers should be aware of the sex difference in pubertal timing. This is especially important in human research as pubertal onset, regardless of age, can be associated with drug seeking behaviors (Dick et al., 2000; Harrell et al., 1998; Martin et al., 2002; Patton et al., 2004). Additionally, previous work has shown that both control saline and amphetamine injections in female rats advanced pubertal onset (Kang et al., 2016).

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    This study was supported by NIDA grants K08 DA00333 and DA 05312 and University of Kentucky Medical Center Research Fund grant 952.

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