In this paper, we demonstrate how the state-of-the-art machine learning and text mining techniques can be used to build effective social media-based substance use detection systems. Since a substance use ground truth is difficult to obtain on a large scale, to maximize system performance, we explore different feature learning methods to take advantage of a large amount of unsupervised social media data. We also demonstrate the benefit of using multi-view unsupervised feature learning to combine heterogeneous user information such as Facebook "likes" and "status updates" to enhance system performance. Based on our evaluation, our best models achieved 86 AUC for predicting tobacco use, 81 for alcohol use and 84 for drug use, all of which significantly outperformed existing methods. Our investigation has also uncovered interesting relations between a user's social media behavior (e.g., word usage) and substance use.
Substance use disorder (SUD) encompasses a complex pattern of behaviors. Many studies have been conducted to discover factors interacting with SUD. A growing number of studies have confirmed a strong association between personal traits and substance use. For example, @cite_38 found that smokers have significantly higher openness to experience and lower conscientiousness , a personality trait related to a tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement. @cite_30 examined the links between alcohol consumption and personality and found that alcohol use is correlated positively with sociability and extraversion. @cite_17 conducted a study involving 1102 participants and found a link between drug use and low conscientiousness . @cite_22 revealed risk factors related to addiction such as age, sex, impulsivity, sweet-liking, novelty reactivity, proclivity for exercise, and environmental impoverishment. Additionally, addiction is also linked to environmental and social factors such as neighborhood environment @cite_31 , family environment @cite_14 @cite_21 and social norms @cite_12 @cite_29 .
@cite_30 @cite_38 @cite_14 @cite_22 @cite_29 @cite_21 @cite_31 @cite_12 @cite_17
2016708334 2338708958 1993224451 2150284449
Research and clinical expertise indicates that impulsivity is an underlying feature of pathological gambling. This study examined the extent to which impulsive behavior, defined by the rate of discounting delayed monetary rewards, varies with pathological gambling severity, assessed by the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS). Sixty-two pathological gamblers completed a delay discounting task, the SOGS, the Eysenck impulsivity scale, the Addiction Severity Index (ASI), and questions about gambling and substance use at intake to outpatient treatment for pathological gambling. In the delay discounting task, participants chose between a large delayed reward (US @math 1-$999) across a range of delays (6h to 25 years). The rate at which the delayed reward was discounted (k value) was derived for each participant and linear regression was used to identify the variables that predicted k values. Age, gender, years of education, substance abuse treatment history, and cigarette smoking history failed to significantly predict k values. Scores on the Eysenck impulsivity scale and the SOGS both accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in k values. The predictive value of the SOGS was 1.4 times that of the Eysenck scale. These results indicate that of the measures tested, gambling severity was the best single predictor of impulsive behavior in a delay discounting task in this sample of pathological gamblers. Psychosocial factors are the principle determinants of youth drug abuse. Among those factors, the most important direct influence on drug use is that of the peer cluster: “gangs,” best friends, or couples. Other psychosocial characteristics, however, set the stage for this involvement with drug-using peer clusters. Social characteristics that influence drug use in this way include the community, socioeconomic status, neighborhood environments, family, religion, and the school. Psychological characteristics tend to have only low correlations with drug use, but there is some influence on peer clusters from traits such as self-esteem, depression, anxiety, and introversion, particularly when these lead to anger. Implications for prevention and treatment are considered. Abstract Although research finds high rates of risky sexual and drug related behavior among homeless young people, little research had examined how the characteristics of their social networks encourage or constrain risky behaviors. Based on a sample of 145 homeless young adults in the Midwestern United States, results revealed that having used alcohol with at least one of their network members and the presence of more conflict was associated with engaging in a greater number of sexual risk taking behaviors. Correlates of engaging in a greater number of substance use related behaviors included having older peers within the network, having used illicit drugs with at least one network member, and the presence of more conflict. The presence of a family member in one’s network, however, was associated with fewer sexual and drug related risk behaviors. Overall, the social network characteristics of youth explained significant, additional variance beyond that of youth’s own characteristics and their early family histories. Associations of popularity with adolescent substance use were examined among 1793 6-8th grade students who completed an in-school survey. Popularity was assessed through both self-ratings and peer nominations. Students who scored higher on either measure of popularity were more likely to be lifetime cigarette smokers, drinkers, and marijuana users, as well as past month drinkers. Self-rated popularity was positively associated with past month marijuana use and heavy drinking, and peer-nominated popularity showed a quadratic association with past month heavy drinking. These results extend previous work and highlight that popularity, whether based on self-perceptions or peer friendship nominations, is a risk factor for substance use during middle school. Given the substantial increase in peer influence during early adolescence, prevention program effectiveness may be enhanced by addressing popularity as a risk factor for substance use or working with popular students to be peer leaders to influence social norms and promote healthier choices. Language: en