Psychoactive drugs are widely available in the United States. Many, such as coffee, cigarettes, and alcohol, are used commonly and acceptably by adults. For children and adolescents sorting through the complex messages about both licit and illicit drugs is difficult. Previous research examined differences between substance users and abusers with groupings based on adverse consequence variables, personality, and psychological health. This study examined adolescent substance use with abstainers, users, and abusers for both consequence and frequency of use groupings. Self-report behavioral data (N=426) indicated robust and comprehensive differences among the three groups for both consequence and frequency of use paradigms. Distinctions observed among the three groups by using the consequence grouping paradigm were paralleled by distinctions among the three groups using the frequency of use paradigm. The implication of this finding is that when one method is economically or otherwise unsuitable to identify clinically at-risk adolescents, the other approach can be used with equal utility. Through these related but distinct dimensions a more comprehensive appreciation of these group differences emerges. The results also provide useful information about variables over which clinicians have both an interest and influence. For both clinical research and practice it is important to be attentive to behavioral risk factors as they are differentially expressed by the profiles of the three groups. (ABL)