NCJ Number
206676
Date Published
August 2004
Length
70 pages
Annotation
This 2004 CASA (National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse) survey was designed to assess the relationship of a 12- to 17-year-old's social world (dating practices, partying, friends who are sexually active or download Internet pornography) to his/her risk of smoking, drinking, getting drunk, and using illegal drugs.
Abstract
The survey solicited responses from 1,000 teens, ages 12 to 17 (487 boys and 513 girls), and 500 parents. This year's survey found that the more time a teen spent with a boyfriend or girlfriend and that the more sexually active were a teen's friends, the greater the risk that the teen would smoke, drink, get drunk, or use illegal drugs. Also, girls who dated boys two or more years older than themselves were at a high risk for substance abuse. The percentage of students who were attending middle schools where drugs were used, kept, or sold was about the same as last year (24 percent in 2004 compared with 21 percent in 2003), as was the percentage of students who were attending high schools where drugs were used, kept, or sold (50 percent in 2004 compared with 52 percent in 2003). For the first time this year, the survey compared the frequency of physical fighting, cheating in school work, and the use of alcohol and drugs by boys to get girls to have sex between drug-free schools and schools where drugs were used, kept, or sold. The survey found that at schools where drugs were used, kept, or sold, 62 percent of the students reported seeing physical fights on a monthly basis; 54 percent of the students reported cheating on homework and tests on a regular basis; and 54 percent of the students believed that boys in their school pressured girls to use alcohol and drugs as a means to get them to have sex with them. By contrast, less than half of the students at drug-free schools engaged in these behaviors. Other data from the survey indicate that 36 percent of teens had friends who smoked cigarettes, up from 30 percent last year; 48 percent had friends who drank regularly, up from 44 percent last year; and 38 percent had friends who smoked marijuana, up from 32 percent last year. Extensive tables and figures and appended sample performance, survey methodology, screening questions, and the questionnaires used with teens and parents