Investigating the association between age at first alcohol use and suicidal ideation among high school students: Evidence from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey

The adolescent developmental stage is characterized by different developmental issues such as risk taking, learning intimacy skills, dating, developing identity, and autonomy (Connolly and McIsaac, 2009; Steinberg, 2008). These experiences may be positive and fulfilling, but they are also likely to be stressful as adolescents are likely to be faced with intense emotions and conflict and they may not have knowledge, experience, or skills to manage these situations. This is likely to heighten the emergence of different health risk behaviors such as experience with victimization, substance use, and mental health issues that are likely to co-occur (e.g., Fergusson et  al., 2000; Reed et al., 2015).
Source: Journal of Affective Disorders - Category: Neurology Authors: Source Type: research