Co-Occurrence of Substance Use and Loneliness as a Risk Factor for Adolescent Hopelessness

This research among 1,915 Mississippi adolescents investigated whether lonely adolescents who use illicit substances were at increased risk of hopelessness. Lonely, substance-using adolescents were 25 times more likely to be severely hopeless than the reference group of non-substance using, not-lonely adolescents. Because hopelessness often is an indicator of suicidal behaviour, these results may have important implications for school health adolescent suicide prevention efforts. (23 refs.)