In this population-representative sample of US adolescents, exposure to any PTE in childhood was associated with higher risk for lifetime use of all illicit drugs assessed. We found evidence for a dose-response relationship between number of PTEs experienced and marijuana, other drug, and polydrug use. Interpersonal violence experienced in childhood was consistently associated with lifetime use of all illicit drugs assessed, even after controlling for the confounding effect of parent substance misuse, which attenuated the effect sizes of many of the associations assessed. To our knowledge, this is the first population-based study to report that traumatic events other than childhood maltreatment are associated with higher risk for marijuana, cocaine, and nonmedical prescription drug use among adolescents.
