NCJ Number
125644
Editor(s)
B Segal
Date Published
1989
Length
181 pages
Annotation
This book responds to the intense concern about drug use among adolescents by focusing on drugs and Native American youth, alcohol use among Latino adolescents, issues in sequencing adolescent drug use and other problem behaviors, the effect of alcohol and tobacco advertising on adolescents, school-based drug prevention programs, and diagnostic criteria for alcohol use and dependency.
Abstract
The segment on drug use by reservation Native American youth between 12 and 17 years of age examines prevalence levels and places the problem of drinking and drug use in a historical and theoretical context. The authors maintain that a clear picture of drug use trends among adolescents cannot be obtained if minority youth are under-represented in national samples. The segment on alcohol use by Latino adolescents emphasizes the need to understand the role and function of alcohol in the development of gender roles in a changing culture. The segment on issues in sequencing adolescent drug use and other problem behaviors reviews adolescent initiation into drug use and subsequent drug use stages and the theoretical implications such stages have for understanding and countering drug behavior among adolescents. In the segment on school-based drug prevention programs, the authors point out that the exact process by which these programs work is unclear, largely because of the failure of prevention programs to include mediating variables and processes. Findings of the segment on diagnostic criteria for alcohol use and dependency in youth indicate adolescent alcoholism and adult alcoholism may not be comparable. In another segment on drug prevention strategies and politics, the "Just Say No" campaign of Nancy Reagan is critically analyzed. 466 references, 6 tables, 7 figures.