Patterns of illicit drug and alcohol use among secondary school students

Abstract

A questionnaire survey of drug practices and related behavior was conducted on 551 middle class, white, largely Jewish, urban adolescents attending private secondary schools. The incidence of illicit drug usage was 14 per cent, of alcohol 52 per cent, and of tobacco 18 per cent. Marihuana was smoked by 12 per cent and was the drug most commonly used. Fifty-nine per cent of users employed more than one illicit drug. A positive correlation was found between the use of alcohol and tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs, and tobacco and illicit drugs. Drug usage correlated with male sex, older age, Protestant religion, poor school grades, lack of interest in higher education, high incidence of usage by friends and classmates, heterosexual activity, negative subjective mood, history of psychiatric difficulty, and history of difficulty with police. It appeared that illicit drug use in high-school students was associated with significant deviation from currently accepted norms of behavior and adjustment. Patterns of alcohol use were similar to patterns of illicit drug use except that factors reflecting intrapsychic difficulty showed a significant correlation with illicit drugs but not with alcohol.