Discusses a school-based prevention program initiated to reduce alcohol, tobacco, and other drug (ATOD) use among adolescents. Investigates changes in reported ATOD use from 1987 to 1991. Significant decreases were found for use of most drugs with the exception of alcohol. Involvement in problem behaviors was the most salient risk factor whereas…

Examines relationships among adolescent drug use and family relationships, aspirations, school involvement, and delinquent behaviors. Analysis of 475 juvenile probationers yielded profiles of marijuana and alcohol use that were influenced by friends' alcohol or marijuana use, selling drugs, and other factors. Recommendations for intervention,…

The 11th Circuit Court upheld a Georgia district's termination of an exemplary teacher who refused an immediate drug test after a police dog sniffed out a marijuana cigarette in her unlocked car. This case illustrates application of zero-tolerance policies to teachers and other personnel despite employees' signed contracts. (MLH)

A federal district judge dismissed a suit brought by two students against a high-school principal who found marijuana in their hotel room on a senior class trip. Although the Fourth Amendment governs searches of students by school employees, employees need not have probable cause for a "reasonable" search. (MLH)

As an initial step in building gender-specific binge drinking intervention programs, the authors investigated the relation of potentially modifiable factors (physical activity level, weight concern, and depressive symptoms) to binge drinking while controlling for the effects of previously established correlates of binge drinking (tobacco and…

This paper examines the hypothetically bi-directional relationship which links marijuana consumption and school failure among students. To that end, we propose a simultaneous probability model, which is estimated by using the information provided by the three consecutive waves from the Spanish Surveys on Drug Use in the School Population [(1996,…

There is growing evidence that cannabis can have negative effects on health. While the ongoing debate about the nature and duration of these effects recognizes mild cognitive impairment, the evidence for irreversibility of cognitive impairment and causal links with psychiatric illness is not conclusive. There is undoubtedly potential for…

This study reports on findings from the first two years of a study to compare a standard Life Skill Training (LST) program with an infused (I-LST) approach. Nine small, rural school districts were randomly assigned to LST, I-LST, or control conditions in grade seven. The LST program significantly reduced alcohol use, binge drinking, marijuana use,…

A comparison of personality factors on scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent (MMPI-A) was conducted with a sample of adolescents referred to a residential substance abuse treatment program. A total of sixty adolescents identified with hallucinogen (n = 20), cannabis (n = 20), or methamphetamine (n = 20) as their drug…

Since the mid-1960s, when illicit drug use burgeoned in the normal youth population, substance use by American young people has proven to be a rapidly changing phenomenon. Smoking, drinking, and illicit drug use are leading causes of morbidity and mortality, both during adolescence as well as later in life. How vigorously the nation responds to…

Background: Anger, a component of negative affect, has previously been associated with increased drug use primarily among white high school-aged students. However, few studies have examined these associations over time, and fewer have examined them among younger adolescents and students of color. Affective factors may play a greater role in drug…

Does success in school protect teenagers from drug use? Does drug use impair scholastic success? This book tackles a key issue in adolescent development and health--the education-drug use connection. The authors examine the links and likely causal connections between educational experiences, delinquent behavior, and adolescent use of tobacco,…

This study investigates community-level prediction of adolescent substance use and problem behaviors using ratings by community leaders to assess the effects of four risk factors on levels of drug use and problem behaviors. Three questions are examined: (a) Can psychometrically sound measures of community leader perceptions of risk factors in…

This study examined the association of victimization in a physically violent dating relationship with risk behaviors, age of risk behavior initiation, and co-occurrence of risk behaviors among students in grades 9 through 12 in the United States. Data were from the 2003 national Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). Nearly 9% of students reported…

This occasional paper is intended to serve as a supplement to the larger annual volume, "Monitoring the Future National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975-2007: Volume I: Secondary School Students." This supplement contains the graphic presentation of the trends in drug use for various demographic subgroups, namely those defined by gender, college…