Little systematic research attention has been devoted to the impact of natural disasters on adolescent substance use. The present study examined relationships among exposure to Hurricane Rita, post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptoms, and changes in adolescent substance use from 13-months pre-disaster to seven- and 19-months post-disaster. Subjects were 280 high school students in southwestern Louisiana who participated in a drug abuse prevention intervention trial prior to the hurricane. Two-thirds of participants were female and 68% were white. Students completed surveys at baseline (13 months pre-hurricane) and two follow-ups (seven-and 19-months post-hurricane). Results indicated a positive bivariate relationship between PTS symptoms, assessed at 7-months post-hurricane, and increases in alcohol (p < .05) and marijuana use (p <.10) from baseline to the 7-month post-hurricane follow-up. When these associations were examined collectively with other hurricane-related predictors in multivariate regression models, PTS symptoms did not predict increases in substance use. However, objective exposure to the hurricane predicted increases in marijuana use and post-hurricane negative life events predicted increases in all three types of substance use (p’s <.10). These findings suggest that increased substance use may be one of the behaviors that adolescents exhibit in reaction to exposure to hurricanes
