Is Residential Instability Leading Young Adults to Use Drugs? BUSSW Researchers Uncover the Troubling Link

January 9, 2019

Young adulthood is a common time for drug experimentation. For many, it’s also a time to leave home and venture into new communities. But is there a link between young adult drug involvement and residential instability? According to a new study led by researchers at Boston University School of Social Work (BUSSW), there is, especially among young women.

The study’s BUSSW contributors – faculty members Christopher P. Salas-Wright, Judith C. Scott, Maryann Amodeo and MSW/MPH student Mariana Cohen – published their findings in the international journal Addictive Behaviors.

The researchers found that young adults who reported higher residential mobility were more likely to also report drug-related outcomes, from drug use to drug-related arrests and illegal distribution. The correlation between mobility and drugs was notably stronger for females. “We need to understand why the stresses associated with residential mobility impact [women] more than men,” says Scott.

The new findings support earlier research that identified stress and instability as significant risk factors in adolescent drug use and initiation. Researchers postulate that the more frequently young adults move from place to place, the more likely they are to experience stress and to live in conditions where drug use is common, both factors which increase the likelihood of drug experimentation and addiction.

The study also provides new insight into the behavioral differences between male and female drug users. “Rates of residential mobility are consistently higher among females and the association between residential mobility and drug selling and drug arrests is greater among women as well. One concern is that the precursor to substance use also makes it difficult for women abusing substances to access services and treatment,” says Scott.

To conduct the study, researchers analyzed trend data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The data, collected between 2003 and 2016, provides self-report survey data on more than 230,000 respondents. A sizable minority – roughly one in five – reported moving two or more times in the last year. For men, the number is dropping; for women, mobility remains relatively stable.

Sehun Oh of The University of Texas, Austin and Michael G. Vaughn of the Saint Louis University School of Social Work co-authored the paper alongside Scott, Salas-Wright, Amodeo, and Cohen. The study was supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.