A new inventory for examining the first six of Erikson's psychosocial stages is described. The self-report questionnaire, developed in a pilot study of 97 adolescents and tested in a study of 622 adolescents, has 12 items for each subscale. Measures of reliability and validity are reported. It is concluded that the Erikson Psychosocial Stage Inventory (EPSI) is a useful measure for researchers interested in development from early adolescence and in mapping changes as a function of life events.

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Initiation into injecting is a crucial event for continued reproduction of an injecting drug using (IDU) population and for exposure to blood-borne viruses, but little is known about how this happens. Three hundred young injectors were interviewed in Melbourne by peer workers within the first few years of beginning to inject, about the circumstances surrounding their initiation. Most had indications of social disruption, including having left school early, unemployment, family disruption, homelessness and incarceration. First drug injected was most often amphetamines (average age 16 years), most having already used amphetamines by a different route of administration, but with a steady movement thereafter to heroin as the drug of choice. The most common scenario was one in which injecting was unplanned but the person was active in bringing about the initiation. Most identified a significant other who initiated them (few of whom were dealers), and over half had subsequently initiated others into injecting, on average 0.6 per year; after 5 years 237 young injectors had initiated at least 420 others. Those who initiated multiple others were more likely to be unemployed, to inject multiple drugs and to have dealt. Modelling injecting as a communicable phenomenon, where appropriate, may help estimate population dynamics among IDUs. Peer education programmes are likely to be the most effective harm reduction approach among new injectors.

The subjective well-being of a sample of 979 international students attending a large metropolitan university in Melbourne, Australia, was investigated. A person-focussed approach was used to determine whether different ways of adapting, based on patterns of well-being, could be discerned. Cluster analysis of responses on 21 measures identified three different patterns: positive and connected (58.8% of students), unconnected and stressed (34.4%), and distressed and risk-taking (6.7%). Tests of the concurrent validity of the typology were significant. Demographic factors were not particularly helpful in distinguishing among the three patterns of well-being. The results provide universities with knowledge pertinent to provision of appropriate international student support.

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Young people who experience homelessness, in Australia and in other western contexts (US, Canada, England), are widely perceived to use and abuse alcohol and drugs. The available research indicates that homeless young people use all drug types, whether injected or otherwise, more frequently than their home‐based peers. Debate exists in the research and policy literature about whether drug use is a cause or consequence of homelessness. In a study exploring homeless young peoples reasons for leaving home, we examined the relationship between young people's drug use and their pathways into homelessness. Brief qualitative interviews were conducted with 302 homeless young people (12–20 years). Following a thematic analysis of interview transcripts, four pathways into homelessness involving personal or familial drug use were identified. One‐third of the participants indicated that personal or familial drug use was a critical factor in them leaving home. Of these, just over half indicated that personal drug use was a direct or indirect cause of their homelessness and one‐quarter indicated that familial drug and alcohol use was the critical factor that led them to leaving home. One‐quarter indicated that their drug use only began after they became homeless. Family conflict, if not family breakdown, was implicated in all four pathways out of home.

The authors examine how the properties of peer networks affect amphetamine, cocaine, and injection drug use over 3 months among newly homeless adolescents, aged 12 to 20 in Los Angeles (n = 217; 83% retention at 3 months) and Melbourne (n = 119; 72% retention at 3 months). Several hypotheses regarding the effects of social network properties on the peer influence process are developed. Multivariate logistic regression analyses show that higher concentrations of homeless peers in networks at recruitment were associated with increased likelihood of amphetamine and cocaine use at 3-month follow-up. Higher concentrations of injecting peers were associated with increased risk of injection drug use 3 months later. Change in network structure over time toward increased concentrations of homeless peers was associated with increased risk of cocaine use and injecting. Higher density networks at baseline were positively associated with increased likelihood of cocaine and amphetamine use at 3 months.

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