Adolescence has far been recognized as a critical developmental period for several reasons, including dramatic physical, cognitive, and psychosocial changes occurring at that time (1, 2). Both substance- and non-substance-related addictive behaviors usually onset in adolescence or young adult age and are more prevalent in these age groups than in any others (3). According to the emerging neurobiological model of addiction, neurodevelopmental changes occurring during adolescence lead to an imbalance between emotional (reward motivation) and cognitive processes (executive control) (3, 4). In fact, while the limbic system undergoes remarkable remodeling during puberty, prefrontal areas development is not complete until near the age of 25 (5). This neurobiological fragility may contribute in adolescence to a higher risk of developing addictive behaviors (6).

An individual susceptibility constituted by genetic, physiological, and personality characteristics may predispose adolescents to addictive tendencies. However, environmental factors, including early exposure to traumatic life events, familiar history of addictive disorders, increased accessibility to gambling and substances of abuse, and peer influence, have been recognized as risk factors as well (7, 8).

The last European School Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs (ESPAD) report has extended the scope of the survey to include not only novel substances of abuse but also behavioral addictions, such as problematic Internet use, gaming, and gambling (9). The ESPAD group points out that “the development of patterns of addictive Internet use among children and adolescents needs to be closely monitored and investigated” and that “measures to prevent adolescents from developing problems associated with gambling, such as debt, psychological deficits and social disadvantages, are of high priority.”

Distinct psychopathological dimensions have been consistently correlated to the occurrence of addictive disorders in adults (10–13). In the past several years, a growing body of research has started to unravel the complex interaction that occurs between psychopathology and the vulnerability to both substance and non-substance addictive behaviors in adolescents (14–20). Psychopathological factors, including both internalizing and externalizing symptomatology, have been further conceptualized in terms of both predictors and consequences of addictive tendencies in adolescents (19, 21, 22).

However, there is still limited evidence about occurrence, related features, and impact of addictive behaviors in this population. Therefore, the aims of the study were to assess prevalence, gender differences, psychopathological features, and academic performance associated with addictive behaviors (substance- and non-substance-related) in high school subjects.

Our findings confirm a relevant prevalence of substance- and non-substance addictive behaviors among high school Italian students. In line with previous studies, the percentage of subjects who reported drinking several times a week/everyday was 13.7%, with a predominance of males (9, 39, 40).

Worryingly, our data revealed that 9.2% of students experimented binge drinking as a usual pattern of alcohol consumption, with no gender differences. A similar scenario emerged from the ESPAD study, in which 13% of the students reported “intoxication in the last 30 days,” with a slight preponderance of males (9).

Due to its cognitive and psychomotor effects on reaction time and coordination (41), alcohol use significantly contributes to the incidence of injuries, accidents, and other traumas, particularly among younger age groups. For alcohol-related injuries, binge drinking has been found to be a major factor (42).

Adolescence is a critical period for brain development, and the adolescent brain is particularly sensitive to the effect of alcohol and other psychoactive substances. Studies suggest that the specific consumption pattern of alternating alcohol intoxications and abstinent episodes, which is linked to excitotoxic cell death during withdrawal, may be deleterious for the nervous system (43). Binge drinking may therefore result in long-term changes in brain functioning.

Binge drinking is also associated with both acute (i.e., hangovers, blackouts, memory loss, etc.) and long-term clinical consequences, including the progression to established alcohol use disorders (44). Furthermore, binge drinking may lead to unprotected sexual activity or sexual assaults (45).

In our study, the use of both alcohol and illicit drugs coexisted in 33.6% of participants and, consistently with previous reports, was more common among males (9, 39, 40). The prevalence of substance use was higher than described by ESPAD (36.4 vs. 28%) (9), with cannabinoids being the most frequently consumed substances (84.8%). In contrast to previous findings, in our sample lifetime cannabinoids consumption was higher among females (46). As recently pointed out, gender difference in cannabis use has decreased over time, and this gap is progressively narrowing (47). Worryingly, studies on effects of cannabinoid exposure during adolescence in both humans and preclinical models suggest that females are more vulnerable to be deleteriously affected by these substances (48).

Few data are still available on the prevalence of non-substance addictive behaviors among adolescents. 22.1% of study subjects showed a maladaptive Internet use that was related to the number of hours/day spent online rather than the number of days/week (49). In our sample, the prevalence of subjects with problematic use of Internet is higher than reported by previous European studies (50, 51). This finding might be related to the increase of Internet use over the years and to progressively younger age of children currently accessing the Web (52).

We found that 9.7% of students were at risk for problematic gambling, showing a correlation with the frequency of gambling. The prevalence of problematic gambling was higher than observed in other European countries (53, 54).

The occurrence of maladaptive physical exercise was 6.2%. A research conducted among young adults by Meulemans and colleagues (55) stated that 3.3% of students were characterized as “at-risk” for exercise addiction, and 51.5% as “non-dependent-symptomatic,” while another study reported a prevalence of exercise addiction ranging from 23.8 to 26.2% (56).

No gender differences were found for problematic Internet use (M = 25.7%; F = 21.1%) and physical exercise (M = 6.4%; F = 6.1%), while problematic gambling, as previously observed in other studies, was significantly more common in males (M = 29.9%; F = 3.7%) (9, 57, 58).

Interestingly, problematic Internet use, gambling, and physical exercise were related with the frequency of alcohol consumption. The cooccurrence of alcohol/substances use and addictive behaviors, such as Internet use and gambling, have been already observed in adults (59, 60) and adolescents (56, 61–63). This cooccurrence may be explained by common biological factors and/or personality traits as impulsivity and sensation/novelty seeking (64).

Specific psychopathological features might also contribute to the development of distinct addictive behaviors, and possibly to an increased proneness for multiple cooccurring addictions (59). Accordingly, in our study, dissociative liability, anhedonia, alexithymia, and impulsivity levels have been found to be associated with the occurrence of addictive behaviors in adolescents. Of note, we observed that dissociative symptoms seem to be a common feature across diverse types of maladaptive behaviors (i.e., binge drinking, problematic gambling, Internet use, and physical exercise) consistently with previous reports (65–67). Dissociation is usually conceptualized as a lack of the integrative functions of memory, consciousness, and identity and is often related to traumatic experiences. However, non-pathological dissociative symptoms are quite common in the general population and several studies suggest that dissociation cannot be simply considered as a learned strategy to decrease emotional engagement (68), but it can be rather regarded as a structural, sometimes dysfunctional, emotion-regulation strategy (69, 70). In fact, dissociative proneness is related to deficits in the ability to symbolize and mentalize affective experiences (71), and elevated levels of dissociation are related to cognitive impairments in healthy subjects (72).

Taken together, the propensity to experience dissociative states, the inability to express and understand self-affects, the tendency to act rapidly and without reflexive thinking, along with a blunted capacity of experiencing pleasure in everyday life may thus be thought as vulnerability factors for addictive behaviors in adolescence. These psychopathological features may reflect a more general individual incapacity to regulate [i.e., to mentalize; (73)] affects induced by stressful events which ultimately leads to repetitive, dysfunctional behavioral patterns (74, 75). Consistently with theories that recognize an influence of addictive behaviors on cognitive and affective capacities of adolescents, both substance and behavioral addictions have been recently conceptualized as specific forms of maladaptive self-regulatory strategies (76, 77). In line with a unifying psychological perspective of addictions, the particularly intense and rigid relationship between the individual and his substance, or activity of choice, contributes to the development of the addictive process (78).

Finally, as shown in our and previous studies, specific psychopathological features seem to play a significant role in the development of both substance and non-substance-related addictive behaviors. Therefore, it is possible to speculate that behavioral addictions could be considered as an expression of an individual underlying psychopathological fragility, rather than symptoms of excessive involvement in maladaptive activities per se (79).

Among young people, academic or educational impairment owing to missed classes, falling behind on work, and lower grades was associated with binge drinking (80). Our study revealed that the frequency of subjects reporting failure/poor school performance was almost two times higher among students with a lifetime substance consumption. Similarly, as recently described in other countries (81, 82), problematic Internet use and gambling were more common in students who reported failure/poor school performance. Therefore, it is possible to state that both substance and non-substance addictive behaviors might negatively influence the educational path of adolescents.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study investigating the association of substance- and non-substance-related addictive behaviors with distinct psychopathological dimensions and perceived poor academic performance in a sample of Italian adolescents.

However, this study presents few limitations, such as the relatively small sample size, the predominance of females, and the cross-sectional nature that precluded the ability to identify the chronological order of the onset of different addictive behaviors.

Given the negative impact on adolescents’ quality of life, and the increased risk for violent/aggressive behaviors (83) as well as for addictive and other psychiatric disorders in adulthood (84), early recognition of alcohol/substance use, binge drinking, and addictive behaviors becomes crucial. Further studies are necessary to better define psychopathological correlates of addictive behaviors in adolescents, to clarify, prevent, and curb this phenomenon.

This study was carried out in accordance with the recommendations of Good Clinical Practice guidelines and the Declaration of Helsinki (1964) and subsequent revisions. All subjects (or parents/tutors, if they were underage) gave written informed consent. The protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy.

MN and LJ were primarily responsible for study design and contributed to data interpretation and article writing. AS and PG performed data collection and contributed to data interpretation. VF and DT were involved in data entry and database management. AC performed statistical analysis. GM and FD-G were involved in data interpretation. VF, LM, and IP contributed to data interpretation and article writing. All authors personally revised and approved the final version of the manuscript.

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.