Exploring Definitions of “Addiction” in Adolescents and Young Adults and Correlation with Substance Use Behaviors

S. Elisha LePine, Elias M. Klemperer, Julia C. West, Catherine Peasley-Miklus, Caitlin McCluskey, Amanda Jones, Maria Roemhildt, Megan Trutor, Rhonda Williams and Andrea Villanti
Additional contact information
S. Elisha LePine: Vermont Center on Behavior and Health, Department of Psychiatry, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA
Elias M. Klemperer: Vermont Center on Behavior and Health, Department of Psychiatry, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA
Julia C. West: Vermont Center on Behavior and Health, Department of Psychiatry, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA
Catherine Peasley-Miklus: Vermont Center on Behavior and Health, Department of Psychiatry, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA
Caitlin McCluskey: Vermont Center on Behavior and Health, Department of Psychiatry, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA
Amanda Jones: Health Surveillance, Vermont Department of Health, Burlington, VT 05402, USA
Maria Roemhildt: Health Surveillance, Vermont Department of Health, Burlington, VT 05402, USA
Megan Trutor: Alcohol & Drug Abuse Programs, Vermont Department of Health, Burlington, VT 05402, USA
Rhonda Williams: Health Promotion & Disease Prevention, Vermont Department of Health, Burlington, VT 05402, USA
Andrea Villanti: Vermont Center on Behavior and Health, Department of Psychiatry, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 13, 1-11

Abstract: (1) Background: Young people engage in addictive behaviors, but little is known about how they understand addiction. The present study examined how young people describe addiction in their own words and correlations between their definitions and substance use behaviors. (2) Methods: Young adults ( n = 1146) in the PACE Vermont Study responded to an open-ended item “what does “addiction” mean?” in 2019. Responses were coded using three inductive categories and fifteen subcategories. Quantitative analyses examined correlations between addiction theme definitions, demographics, and substance use behaviors. (3) Participants frequently defined addiction by physiological (68%) and psychological changes (65%) and less by behavioral changes (6%), or all three (3%); young adults had higher odds of defining addiction as physiological or behavioral changes than adolescents. Participants who described addiction as “ psychological changes ” had lower odds of ever electronic vapor product use (OR 0.75, 95% CI 0.57–1.00) than those using another definition, controlling for age and sex. (4) Perceptions of addiction in our sample aligned with existing validated measures of addiction. Findings discriminated between familiar features of addiction and features that may be overlooked by young adults. Substance users may employ definitions that exclude the symptoms they are most likely to experience.

Keywords: youth; young adult; addiction; substance use; intervention; messaging; mixed methods; qualitative (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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