Factors related to drug abuse in the submarine service: I. Selected demographic and psychometric data

Factors Related to Drug Abuse in the Submarine Service. 3. Characteristic Biographical Profiles and Related Data

“…The first paper of this series presented data to support the general as- sumption that the most appropriate focus for DA research was upon the motivational dynamics of the drug user himself. 2 However, the psychometric indices of motivation included in the first study failed to discriminate between the DA and C-groups. Therefore, more indirect indicants of motivation were employed in the present study.…”

“…For one thing, more of the DA group are high school dropouts. 2 Also, to anticipate some findings from Phase II of this study, DA cases are more likely to have been expelled from high school, to have failed more subjects, and to have negative attitudes towards their teachers than a matched, non-DA control group. Thus, as stated concerning a similar finding in a previous DA study, "the kind of person who has a drug abuse history is more likely to be poorly motivated for the submarine service and to have inadequate study skills, both factors combining to result in poorer grades" 2 (p. 11).…”

“…It is important to point out one significant difference between the sampling conditions for the first and second 3 papers of this series, namely, that the former focus sed upon a sample of drug abuse (DA) cases processed before the socalled drug amnesty authority (z-gram 94) 6 was promulgated, while the latter involved a sample of men entering the amnesty program following its issuance. Briefly, the first study demonstrated that the enlisted men in the DA group tended: (1) to be younger than the control (non-DA) group; (2) to have achieved less formal education; (3) to earn poorer grades in Submarine School; and, (4) to earn lower scores on the ARI (Arithmetical) aptitude test of the USN Basic Test Battery. On the other hand, all of the personality subtests contained in the Psychiatric Screening Battery for Submariners failed to discriminate between the DA and control groups.…”

“…for the DA group as compared to the control group. 2 But frequently throughout the DA literature mention is made of the decline in intensity and/or appropriateness of the motivation of DA cases, achievement motivation for example as indicated by poor performance and attrition in high school, in Submarine School 2 and in college. 25 One aspect of the total motivation of the DA cases investigated in this study dealt with the differential motivational patterns underpinning the man's decision to volunteer for the submarine service.…”

Factors Related to Drug Abuse in the Submarine Service. IV. Correlates of Permissiveness of Attitudes Toward Drug Abuse

“…2 While admittedly sparse, the published data now suggest that the etiology of D.A. in the Submarine Service at least is associated, for the most part, with ineffective character traits, with delinquency histories, poor performance in school, and interactional difficulties with teachers, law enforcement agents, and other persons in authoritarian roles 2,4 One common finding from the D.A. literature originating from all branches of the military services is that the personality differences within the D.A.…”