Risk Factors for Drug Use Among Adolescents: Concurrent and Longitudinal Analyses

• NCJ Number: 112743
• Journal: American Journal of Public Health Volume: 76 Issue: 5 Dated: (May 1986) Pages: 525-531
• Author(s): M D Newcomb; E Maddahian; P M Bentler
• Date Published: 1986
• Length: 7 pages
• Grant Number(s): DA01070
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute on Drug Abuse
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Free online PDF and HTML access to the American Journal of Public Health is provided by the publisher 24 months after individual issues are released.

Annotation

This study examined the contribution of 10 personal and social risk factors to the use of 5 types of drugs: cigarettes, alcohol, cannabis, hard drugs, and nonprescription medications.

Abstract

Subjects were 994 adolescents in grades 10, 11, and 12 during the fourth year of a longitudinal study. Risk factors examined included low grade point average, lack of religiosity, early alcohol use, low self-esteem, psychopathology, poor relationships with parents, lack of social conformity, sensation-seeking, perceived peer drug use, and perceived adult drug use. Results indicate that those with three or fewer risk factors were less likely than the total sample to be heavy users of hard drugs, whereas those with five or more were more likely to be at least weekly users of hard drugs. Those with seven or more risk factors were over nine times as likely to be heavy users of hard drugs compared to the general sample. Partial correlations between fourth year risk factors and drug use in the fifth year indicate that year-4 risk factors were clearly related to increased use of all substances over time. The strongest effects were for alcohol and hard drugs, the weakest effect was for cigarettes. 3 figures, 5 tables, and 53 references.