Session: Emerging Adults and Substance Use (Society for Social Work and Research 23rd Annual Conference - Ending Gender Based, Family and Community Violence)

Emerging adulthood, spanning from roughly ages 18-29, is when the peak prevalence of substance use occurs. This symposium uses a diverse set of methodologies (i.e., SEM, meta-analysis, qualitative, and Latent Profile Analysis). These presentations all test how theories apply to emerging adult substance use. For example, three of the four presentations focus on how a popular theory of emerging adulthood is associated with substance use. A central theme in these studies of particular relevance to social workers is whether the Emerging Adult theory originally proposed by Jeffrey Arnett extends to marginalized populations of emerging adults. Additionally, one presentation focuses on how a practice theory largely applied to cohabitating couples can be adapted for interventions targeting emerging adult peer dyads. These studies all have implications for refining theory and modifying treatments for emerging adults, which is highly important given that they form a large constituency among all substance use treatment recipients.