Urbanicity, biological stress system functioning and mental health in adolescents

Growing up in an urban area has been associated with an increased chance of mental health problems in adults, but less is known about this association in adolescents. We examined whether current urbanicity was associated with mental health problems directly and indirectly via biological stress system functioning. Participants (n = 323) were adolescents from the Dutch general population. Measures included home and laboratory assessments of autonomic nervous system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis functioning, neighborhood-level urbanicity and socioeconomic status, and mother- and adolescent self-reported mental health problems. Structural equation models showed that urbanicity was not associated with mental health problems directly. Urbanicity was associated with acute autonomic nervous system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis reactivity such that adolescents who lived in more urban areas showed blunted biological stress reactivity. Furthermore, there was some evidence for an indirect effect of urbanicity on mother-reported behavioral problems via acute autonomic nervous system reactivity. Urbanicity was not associated with overall autonomic nervous system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis reactivity or basal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis functioning. Although we observed some evidence for associations between urbanicity, biological stress reactivity and mental health problems, most of the tested associations were not statistically significant. Measures of long-term biological stress system functioning may be more relevant to the study of broader environmental factors such as urbanicity

Role of individual, peer and family factors in the use of cannabis and other illicit drugs: A longitudinal analysis among Finnish adolescent twins

Background: Although use of illicit drugs shows varying degree of heritability, the influence of shared and unique environmental factors predominate among adolescents. We explored factors predicting use of cannabis and other illicit drugs among Finnish adolescent twins. Methods: We used longitudinal data from the FinnTwin12-17 study with baseline at age 11-12 and follow-up at ages 14 and 171/2, including 4138 individuals. The outcome was self-reported ever use of cannabis or other illicit drugs at age 171/2. The potential predictors were measures reported by the twins, their parents or teachers. As individual factors we tested smoking, alcohol use, behavioral and emotional problems; as peer factors: number of smoking friends and acquaintances with drug experience; as family factors: parental substance use, socio-economic status and pre-natal exposure to nicotine. We used logistic regression models, controlling for twinship, age and sex, to compute odds ratios (OR) for each potential predictor. To adjust for within-family confounds, we conducted conditional logistic regressions among 246 twin pairs discordant for drug use. Results: 13.5% of subjects had initiated use of cannabis or other illicit drugs by age of 171/2. When adjusted for within-family confounds, smoking, drinking, and aggressiveness, as well as smoking and drug use among peers predicted use of illicit drugs. In the final regression model, the significant predictors were female sex, early smoking onset, drinking to intox

Intrauterine cannabis exposure leads to more aggressive behavior and attention problems in 18-month-old girls

Background: The development of the fetal endocannabinoid receptor system may be vulnerable to maternal cannabisuse duringpregnancy andmayproduce long-termconsequences inchildren.Inthis study, we aimed to determine the relationship between gestational cannabis use and childhood attention problems and aggressive behavior. Methods: Using a large general population birth cohort, we examined the associations between parental prenatal cannabis and tobacco use and childhood behavior problems at 18 months measured using the Child Behavior Checklist in N = 4077 children. Substance use was measured in early pregnancy. Results: Linear regression analyses demonstrated that gestational exposure to cannabis is associated with behavioral