NCJ Number
157368
Journal
Addiction Research Volume: 1 Dated: (1993) Pages: 27-37
Date Published
1993
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This study examined the personalities of 210 adolescents, who completed the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), and whose drug use ranged from the use of licit drugs only to the injection of opiates, but who had no identified addiction problem. All subjects were from the same neighborhoods and social networks.
Abstract
Several MMPI scale scores were elevated for adolescent drug users in this study, both in terms of group differences and to the extent that a substantial proportion of drug users scored abnormally high. The MMPI differentiated between adolescents who used only licit drugs and those who used illicit drugs, but could not distinguish between nonopioid drug users, hard drug users, and drug injectors. For boys, psychopathic deviance and hypomania were most strongly correlated with drug use. For girls, both delinquency and the neurotic triad of subscales were related to drug use. The results suggest that drug addiction does not create an addictive personality, but rather that drug use is one facet of delinquent behavior, which develops as part of a child's personality. 5 tables and 30 references