ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry

Sec. Interventions for Adolescent Mental Health

Volume 4 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frcha.2025.1513607

This article is part of the Research TopicImproving Impacts of Mental Health Treatment on Substance Misuse and Vice VersaView all 4 articles

Youth Risk Index 1 Youth Risk Index: Psychometrics, Predicting Initiation of Early Adolescent Substance Use, and Breadth of Liability Detected

Provisionally accepted
Ty A. RidenourTy A. Ridenour1*Nisha O'Shea GottfredsonNisha O'Shea Gottfredson1Jason WilliamsJason Williams1Daniel S. ShawDaniel S. Shaw2Maureen D. ReynoldsMaureen D. Reynolds2Cheryl A. RobertsCheryl A. Roberts1Richard SpothRichard Spoth3David R Garnica-AgudeloDavid R Garnica-Agudelo4Idil BaranIdil Baran4Aysenil BelgerAysenil Belger4Diana H. FishbeinDiana H. Fishbein4
  • 1RTI International, Durham, United States
  • 2University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
  • 3Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, United States
  • 4University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States

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Risk, prevention, severity, and disability of psychiatric illness are all impeded by substance misuse and consequent disorders. Prevention programs with efficacy for reducing substance use frequently yield "crossover" benefits of reduced psychiatric symptoms. This study evaluates a screening tool to detect risk for future problematic substance use in early adolescence that also portends prevalent psychiatric symptoms and could facilitate selective/indicated primary prevention. Results demonstrate that elevated liability to substance use, substance use disorder, conduct disorder behaviors, depression symptoms, and thus at least some vulnerability to psychiatric illness can be detected in late childhood which could facilitate prevention efforts potentially years before the onset of corresponding illnesses.

Keywords: Conduct problems, screening, disinhibition, social contagion, validity, Substance Use & Misuse

Received: 18 Oct 2024; Accepted: 03 Jun 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Ridenour, O'Shea Gottfredson, Williams, Shaw, Reynolds, Roberts, Spoth, Garnica-Agudelo, Baran, Belger and Fishbein. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Ty A. Ridenour, RTI International, Durham, United States

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary Material