Addictive behaviours, including the use of addictive substances poses substantial, yet preventable, individual and public health and social burdens. Youth in particular remain vulnerable to such adverse health and social consequences. While both international and Nordic studies consistently document increases in substance use, gambling/gaming and social media use across adolescent years and identify the associated risk factors, the putative links between early engagement in addictive behaviours and social belonging remain poorly understood.
Social belonging is a fundamental human need across cultures. Support from and connection to family, friends, school, and the community can have a profound impact on adolescent development, and thus ultimately, on population health and social disparities. However, our knowledge of the associations, including potentially mutual influences, between adolescents’ health behaviours such as substance use and their social belonging status is limited.
The proposed pre-conference aims to provide novel insights into these questions by (1) discussing central concepts such as social belonging/exclusion and loneliness, and knowledge about their relation to various outcomes such as addictive behaviours and health, (2) presenting findings from Nordic studies on social belonging and addictive behaviours among youth, and (3) facilitating collaboration among Nordic researchers on this topic. A range of relevant research questions will be explored within the Nordic shared socio-cultural context, focusing primarily on quantitative and qualitative assessment of social belonging among youth and its putative associations with addictive behaviours and other important correlates (e.g., mental health) during the last decade.
Programme
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Time |
Presenter |
Title of presentation |
Position, affiliation, country
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12:30 – 13:30 |
Lunch
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13:30 – 13.40
|
Inger Synnøve Moan |
Welcome and introduction |
Research Professor, Dept. of Alcohol, Tobacco and Drugs, NIPH, Norway
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13:40 – 13:55
|
Thomas Hansen |
Understanding Loneliness: From Conceptualization to Prevention
|
Research Professor, Dept. of Mental Health, NIPH, Norway.
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13:55 – 14:10 |
Kim Bloomfield
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Social belonging vs. Social support: similarities and differences regarding their relationship to substance use and misuse |
Professor Emerita, Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research, Aarhus University, Denmark
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14:10 – 14:25 |
Siri Thor |
The Role of Civil Society Engagement and Alcohol Use in Young Adulthood
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Researcher, The Swedish Council for Information on Alcohol and Other Drugs (CAN), Sweden
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14:25 – 13:40 |
Coffee break – 15 minutes
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14:40 – 14:55 |
Geir Scott Brunborg |
#WiredGeneration: Examining the consequences of adolescent social media use
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Research Professor, Dept. of Child Health and Development, NIPH, Norway
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14:55 – 15:10 |
Ingeborg Lund |
School connectedness and use of addictive substances in a panel of Norwegian youth |
Research Professor, Dept. of Alcohol, Tobacco and Drugs, NIPH, Norway
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15:10 – 15:25 |
Jasmina Burdzovic Andreas |
Peer cliques belonging and development of substance use among Norwegian youth |
Research Professor, Dept. of Alcohol, Tobacco and Drugs, NIPH, Norway
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15:25 – 15:40 |
Janne Scheffels |
Early experimentation, divergent pathways: Social belonging and the development of adolescent substance use
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Research Professor, Dept. of Alcohol, Tobacco and Drugs, NIPH, Norway
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15:40 – 15:55 |
Coffee break – 15 minutes
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15:55 – 16:10 |
Olav Bertin Tveit |
Disrupted Social Connections and the Day After: The Duration of Pandemic-Associated Excess Depression, Anxiety and ADHD Diagnoses in Youth
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Researcher, Dept. of Child Health and Development, NIPH, Norway |
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16:10 – 16:25 |
Thomas Sevenius Nilsen |
Alcohol Use and Social Belonging among Young Adults in Norway: Findings from the Norwegian Counties Public Health Surveys
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Senior researcher, Dept. of Mental Health, NIPH, Norway.
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16:25 – 16:40
|
Marianne Lund |
Subjective social status and substance use in Norwegian high-school students |
Senior researcher, Dept. of Alcohol, Tobacco and Drugs, NIPH, Norway
|
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16:40 – 17:00 |
Inger Synnøve Moan |
Questions and discussion
|
Research Professor, Dept. of Alcohol, Tobacco and Drugs, NIPH, Norway
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19:00 – |
Dinner in Bilbao
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