Do Adverse Childhood Experience and Age Predispose Youths to Substance Use?

Introduction: There are overwhelming evidence on the negative impacts of substance abuse on youth. However, there is paucity of literature on the scenario that adverse childhood experience and age could influence substance use among Nigeria youths. This study investigated whether adverse childhood experience and age could predispose youths to substance use. Methods: A cross-sectional survey design was adopted with a pack questionnaire to collect data from 599 participants containing demographic factors, Adverse childhood experience Questionnaire (CTQ) and Drug Abuse Screening Test-20 (DAST-20). Results: Present finding showed that adverse childhood experience (ACE) had significant difference on substance use (t(394)=13.64; p<.001). Participants with high ACE ( = 46.21, SD = 04.75) exhibited higher substance use than those with low ACE ( = 35.90, SD = 09.56). Also, age has significant influence on substance use (F (2, 597) = 5.511, p<.05). further analysis showed that there is a significant difference between those in the early age (n= 418) and middle age (n = 32) with a total adjusted mean of 26.0, compared to participants within the age range of 18-24years who had adjusted mean difference of 19.7, while participants within the age range of 32-40years (n=150) had adjusted mean difference of 5.72 compared with participants within the age range of 25-31years who had a total adjusted mean of 19.7. Discussion and Conclusions: The study revealed that ACE and age did predisposed youths to substance use; to prevent substance use stakeholders should ameliorate ACEs and manage late adolescence among youths.