Early-life stressors, younger puberty predict teen substance use for girls
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Key takeaways:
- Early-life family stress increased likelihood of boys initiating substance use by age 13 years.
- Early-life family and environmental stressors and earlier puberty raised girls’ likelihood of substance use.
BOSTON — Girls and boys who experienced stress early in life were more likely than those with lower stress scores to use alcohol, nicotine and cannabis by age 13 years, according to a presenter at ENDO 2024.
However, the mechanisms by which early-life stress affects risks for substance use are likely different for boys and girls, Alexandra Donovan, PhD, MS, a postdoctoral fellow at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles, told Healio.
Donovan and colleagues examined the contributions of three types of early-life stress on risk for substance use — a full alcoholic drink, more than a puff of a cigarette or marijuana — by young adolescents. Environmental stress included lower educational attainment for parents, change in family structure, limited ability to pay bills and lower neighborhood income. Family stress included family members’ psychological problems, limited emotional support and family conflict. Traumatic stress included physical, emotional or sexual abuse, experiencing or witnessing violence, and serious accidents or natural disasters.
The researchers analyzed data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development database release 5.0 on 7,867 children (4,192 assigned male at birth) without a history of substance use who were aged 9 to 11 years at baseline; 52.74% were white, 14.26% Black, 21.65% Hispanic). The researchers generated an early-life stress score (0-60, higher score indicates more stress) for each participant. Puberty was assessed with the Pubertal Development Scale based on parent responses. Estradiol, testosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone concentrations were measured through saliva samples.
Among the cohort, 4.3% initiated substance use by age 13 years.
Overall, researchers found that together early-life stress, age at puberty, estradiol level and age influenced time to first use of alcohol, nicotine or cannabis. Younger age and higher early-life stress scores were statistically significant predictors of younger age at substance use initiation (HR = 1.029; P < .001 and HR = 1.017; P < .05, respectively).
Assessing boys and girls separately, the researchers found early-life stress increased boys’ risk for substance use at age 13 years by 9% to 18%. For boys, family stressors were most related to substance use risk (HR = 1.14; 95% CI, 1.09-1.19; P < .05).
Early life stress increased girls’ risk by 13% to 20%. For girls, risk was linked to both family stress (HR = 1.12; 95% CI, 1.05-1.2; P < .05) and environmental stress (HR = 1.14; 95% CI, 1.06-1.22; P < .05 for all).
Girls with earlier pubertal development were more likely to use nicotine, Donovan said.
“Though baseline hormone measures did not mediate the effect of early-life stress on time to first substance use, within the female sample, testosterone and estradiol levels were significant predictors of alcohol and nicotine use, respectively,” Donovan said during a press briefing.
“The fact that we controlled for age, pubertal development and early-life stress but still found a significant effect of testosterone on alcohol use and estradiol on nicotine use will be surprising, especially since this finding was only within the female sample,” Donovan told Healio.
Donovan said knowledge of the effects of different early-life stressors for boys and girls.
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Donovan AO, et al. RF03-01. Presented at: ENDO annual meeting; June 1-4, 2024; Boston.
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