NCJ Number
185548
Date Published
2000
Length
254 pages
Annotation
This is the second volume in a two-volume set that reports the results of all surveys through 1999 from the Monitoring the Future study of American secondary school students, college students, young adults, and now people in middle adulthood; this volume presents the results of the 1977-1999 follow-up surveys of the graduating high school classes of 1976 through 1998 as these respondents have progressed through young adulthood; it also presents for the first time prevalence and trend data on 35- and 40-year-olds.
Abstract
An overview of key findings in the trend analysis shows differences in illicit drug use between college and non-college respondents for specific drugs, as well as male-female differences in illicit drug use. Similar data are provided for trends in alcohol use. Data on trends in cigarette smoking cover age and cohort-related differences, college-non-college differences, and male-female differences. Trend data also encompass racial/ethnic comparisons and drug use in the eighth grade. Trend findings indicate that from the late 1970's to the early 1990's there were appreciable declines in the use of several illicit drugs among 12th-grade students and even larger declines in their use among college students and young adults. A chapter on study design and procedures address the surveys of high school seniors, surveys of lower grades, and follow-up surveys of seniors. Four chapters that focus on young adults post-high school cover the prevalence of drug use in early and middle adulthood, trends in drug use in early and middle adulthood, attitudes and beliefs about drugs among young adults, and the social milieu for young adults. Two chapters on college students focus on the prevalence of drug use in this population and trends in drug use. 30 tables and 65 figures