This narrative literature review examines the impact of drug abuse on school children aged 10 to 18 across ten developed countries: the United States, Canada, France, England, Germany, Italy, Russia, Australia, Japan, and China. Drawing on 17 peer-reviewed articles and two works of grey literature identified through searches of ProQuest, PubMed, Scopus, and Sage, the review organizes findings into five major themes: societal impact, personal health impact, familial impact, economic impact, and political impact. Cannabis and vaping emerge as the most common entry points into drug culture, while methamphetamines are notably prevalent in East Asia. The review finds that adolescent drug abuse undermines cognitive development, weakens family structures, increases economic burdens, and challenges government prevention efforts across the developed world.
The problem addressed in this literature review is that in developed countries around the world, drug abuse among school children between the ages of 10 and 18 is on the rise (UN, 2018). School children are particularly vulnerable because their bodies and minds are still developing, and when drugs are introduced to their systems the impact can be devastating in both physical and mental health terms (Stockings et al., 2016). Yet this is happening all around the developed world. Children are being brought into and exposed to drug culture partly because vaping, which was originally intended as a tool to wean tobacco smokers off cigarettes, is now allowing younger and younger adolescents to experiment with drugs, particularly marijuana (Audrain-McGovern, Stone, Barrington-Trimis, Unger, & Leventhal, 2018).
This is a serious problem, and its impacts need to be better understood, as they likely extend beyond developmental effects and touch society as a whole. The population of concern in this study is school-aged children between 10 and 18 years of age, situated in the following developed countries: the United States, Canada, France, England, Germany, Italy, Russia, Australia, Japan, and China. With the opioid epidemic now raging in many parts of the world, this is also a timely inquiry, as it addresses an issue that many developed nations are struggling to confront: youth drug abuse (Murthy, 2016). The legalization of cannabis in many U.S. states and other parts of the world is another factor making drug culture more prevalent (Chu, 2015).
For these reasons, the aim of this study is to assess the actual impact of drug abuse on young school children throughout the developed world, with the ultimate goal of finding ways to address the problem and reverse the drug culture driving it. Before solutions can be found, however, the effects and their full scope must be understood. Drug abuse is in fact a global problem that even affects developing countries — for example, school children in Ethiopia who abuse inhalants to achieve a high (Tsegaye, 2016). Clearly, youths are attracted to drugs for the effects they produce, but what is the broader impact on their nations? That is what this review explores. This narrative literature review identifies the methods and search strategies used, presents the selection criteria for the literature searches, discusses findings in thematic terms, and concludes by summarizing what has been learned.
The databases utilized for this literature review were accessed through Google Scholar and included ProQuest, PubMed, Scopus, and Sage. These databases were chosen because they contain the scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles most relevant to this subject. Keyword search terms included: "drug abuse teens," "impact drug abuse school children," "impact drug use developed countries," "drug abuse developed world," "drug abuse effects youth," "adolescents," "school-aged children," "cannabis," "marijuana use," "drug abuse adolescents," "Canada," "France," "England," "Germany," "Italy," "Russia," "Australia," "Japan," and "China." The search was conducted over one week.
Inclusion criteria required that articles be: written in English; published between 2004 and 2019; focused on the impact of drug abuse among adolescent school children in the developed world; and specifically mentioning at least one of the ten developed countries listed above. Exclusion criteria eliminated: studies focusing on drug abuse among adults only; studies exploring drug treatments without discussing the impact of abuse on children; studies focused exclusively on drug abuse in developing countries; non-English sources; and studies published before 2004.
Articles were analyzed using thematic and content analysis. Abstracts were read first to confirm that each article met the inclusion criteria. Content was then examined for commonalities, and themes were identified after reading each article twice before being categorized into groups. Some grey literature was also included — such as reports from the United Nations — because of its relevance to the subject.
In total, the search returned 527 articles for review. Of these, 510 were discarded because they did not meet the inclusion criteria. The remaining 17 were reviewed for this study. Relevance was determined by reading article titles and abstracts. Two works of grey literature were included in the analysis. The analysis was conducted using thematic analysis: coding was applied to identify themes after reading each article four times. Preliminary codes were assigned to assist in categorization, patterns and themes were searched for across articles, and themes were then named and grouped.
Five main themes emerged from the thematic analysis: (1) the societal impact of adolescent drug abuse; (2) the personal impact of adolescent drug abuse; (3) the familial impact of adolescent drug abuse; (4) the economic impact of adolescent drug abuse; and (5) the political impact of adolescent drug abuse. Additional sub-themes included the types of drugs used among school children, academic impacts, and sexual risk-taking as a corollary to drug abuse among adolescents in the developed world.
Among all nations in the developed world, cannabis is the most common drug among adolescent school children and is inhaled primarily through vaping tools or hookah pipes (Audrain-McGovern et al., 2018). Other substances include club drugs for older adolescents and street inhalants. Club drugs — including ecstasy, methamphetamines, cocaine, ketamine, LSD, and GHB — are primarily found among wealthier populations and are used at rave parties (UNODC, 2018). Methamphetamines are particularly prevalent among youths in China and Japan (Ji Kwon & Han, 2018). Cannabis is more commonly used at average youthful gatherings because it is more accessible, and the tools for inhaling it are widely available thanks to the proliferation of vape pens and THC oils obtainable through cannabis dispensaries. Young people living in poverty are also more likely to engage in the illicit sale and transportation of drugs (UNODC, 2018).
Drug abuse among adolescents in the developed world creates social tension and disruption, leads to conflicting narratives within social groups (Downes, 2017), and contributes to a destabilizing effect in communities where drug use is particularly severe (Jiang et al., 2017). It contributes to social inequality, though it may also stem from it (Henkel & Zemlin, 2016). The societal impact is evident across all of the developed countries analyzed in this study, though it is least pronounced in Australia, where the government is more actively engaged in preventing the proliferation of adolescent drug abuse (Wong et al., 2017). The societal impact is particularly damaging because it undermines communal bonds, as seen across Russia, Japan, the United States, England, Germany, Italy, and other nations.
Drug use among school-aged adolescents in the developed world negatively impacts students' cognitive abilities (Jackson et al., 2016). It leads youths into lives of crime and addiction from which it is difficult to escape (Ji Kwon & Han, 2018). It also contributes to a loss of self-control (Stockings et al., 2016) and may lead to harder drug use over time (Chu, 2015). Drug abuse can result in hospitalization and self-harm (Herbert et al., 2016), suicide ideation (Juan et al., 2015), and other risky behaviors such as unsafe sexual activity (Lo et al., 2019).
These personal health impacts can prevent youths from reaching their potential as adults and from becoming contributing members of society, as they may struggle with addiction throughout their lives. They are likely to face difficulties maintaining employment, and they risk becoming a lost generation due to the toll drug abuse takes on them. The more drugs young people use, the greater the damage to their health — their brains are still in a highly developmental stage and are easily affected by the chemicals introduced through substance abuse.
"Family breakdown and taxpayer burden analyzed"
"Government prevention efforts and cultural resistance"
The findings show that drug abuse among adolescents throughout the developed world is a serious problem in every nation, and every nation must attempt to deal with it. Because cultural differences among countries play a significant role in how this issue manifests and is perceived, there is no single method that can be universally developed to address it. The research does indicate that adolescent drug abuse — from the United States to China — is a growing problem, and that governments are working to address it by testing prevention programs, as is currently being done in Italy and Australia, among other nations.
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