Background:

Substance use contributes significantly to the global burden of disease, with initiation primarily occurring during adolescence. Multiple factors have been identified at individual and environmental levels that may be protective of adolescent substance use. Such factors are considered collectively as ‘resilience’ and may be particularly important in disadvantaged populations where resilience factors are suggested to mitigate exposure to risk. A study was conducted to determine the association between a comprehensive measure of adolescent resilience and use of different substances. 

Methods:

A cross sectional study was conducted in 32 Australian secondary schools located in disadvantaged areas. Students (12-16 years) completed an anonymous web-based survey regarding their resilience characteristics and their use of tobacco, alcohol, marijuana and other illicit substances. Logistic regression analyses examined associations between resilience (overall, total internal, total external, and 14 resilience subscales) and use of  

Results/Discussions:

 The survey was completed by 9,987 students (participation rate 89.8%). Negative associations were found between all substance types and 17 measures of resilience (114/119 models). Adolescents with low resilience had significantly greater odds of reporting tobacco (OR range: 1.6–6.2), alcohol (OR range: 1.3–4.2), marijuana (OR range: 1.9–6.5) and other illicit drugs use (OR range: 2.3–11.0) than those with moderate/high resilience.

Adolescents with low scores across almost all aggregate and individual resilience factors were consistently more likely to report substance use, suggesting a multi-dimensional association between resilience and substance use. Such an association was found for each of the substances measured, suggesting the association be generalised. 

Conclusions/implications: The consistent inverse association between adolescent resilience and use of substances suggests that enhancing the resilience of adolescents has the potential to reduce substance use by adolescents, and hence the risk of related harms both as an adolescent and later in life. This finding is particularly important for adolescents from disadvantaged populations.