Adolescent Drug and Alcohol Use: Patterns, Predictors, Preventions

Abstract

The events of the 1960s in the United States gave impetus to concern about use of drugs by youth. Early studies focused on the college population (18–21 year olds) who were accessible to researchers and the main initiators of drug use at that time. A few later studies gained access to high school students (14–18 year olds) as drug use spread to them. This 1975 study is unique in having affluent, suburban, upper middle class youth fifth grade through high school (10 year olds through 18 year olds). Besides studying behaviors of a group to which research access is usually denied, we were interested in determining which of the previously suggested models explaining the causes of drug use was the most accurate.