The landscape of youth addiction in Israel: Identifying high-risk behaviors

While significant progress has been made in understanding the prevalence of use and severity of addictive behaviors, there remains a lack of research adopting a lay epidemiological approach to examine a broad spectrum of addictive behaviors among a large youth population. The objective of this study is to investigate the frequencies of use and severity of various addictive-like behaviors across different demographic variables including gender, religion, country of birth, religiosity, socio-economic status, and age. The sample comprised 6,849 Jewish and Arabic Israeli youth from the general community, consisting of 2,776 males (41 %) and 4,074 females (59 %), 12–18 years of age (M = 15.92, SD = 1.27) who completed the survey anonymously and with parental consent. Results indicated that higher severity in one addictive behavior correlates with increased severity in others. Substance-related behaviors such as alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, and cocaine showed stronger correlations within their group than with behavioral addictions like gambling, shopping, gaming, eating disorders, sexual activity and social networking. Similarly, behavioral addictions also display stronger correlations within their own cluster. In addition, significant prevalence of use and severity differences were observed in addictive behaviors based on gender, religion, country of birth, religiosity, socio-economic status, and age. The research underscores the critical role of providing support and resources to youth, which is essential for preventing addictive behaviors and reducing the risks associated with their development.