Patterns of drug use from adolescence to young adulthood: II. Sequences of progression.

Abstract

Major pathways of progression among legal, illegal. and medically prescribed psychoactive drugs from adolescence to young adulthood are described. The data are based on a follow-up cohort of former adolescents representative of high school students in grades 10 and 11 in New York State who were reinterviewed nine years later at ages 24-25. Various models of progression are tested for their goodness of fit. The patterns formerly observed in adoles- IntrodiuctionStages of involvement in legal and illegal drugs have been described for adolescents. Adolescents are very unlikely to experiment with marijuana without prior experimentation with one of the alcoholic beverages or with cigarettes; very few try illicit drugs other than marijuana without prior use of marijuana, as documented in particular by our own earlier work-5 and the work of Jessor,/ O'Donnell and his colleagues,7-"' Johnston,'" Huba and Bentler,'2-'5 and others. '6'-To date, the empirical support for the concept of stages in drug use derives from cross-sectional data'0'2" 18 or from a short-term longitudinal follow-up.' 3 No results have been reported that are based on a follow-up of young people over several years with a detailed monitoring of their drug behavior past the period of risk for initiation into the relevant drugs. Such data are presented in this paper for a cohort of former high school students who were followed into young adulthood, at ages 24 to 25. By that age, the period of risk for initiation to the legal drugs, to marijuana, and to most other illicit drugs, with the exception of cocaine, is over, as reported in the first article of this series in this issue of the Journal.22In investigating pathways of progression among drugs, we address two related issues: I) whether the pattern of progression observed in adolescence over a short-term interval-i.e., from the use of at least one class of licit drug (alcohol or cigarettes), to the use of marijuana, to the use of other illicit drugs including the non-medical use of drugs available by prescription-holds when the same cohort of individuals is followed to young adulthood; and 2) whether the use of medically prescribed psychotropic drugs can be characterized as a later stage of progression. Methods Samples and Field ProceduresThe analyses are based on a follow-up in [1980][1981] The data were obtained through personal household interviews that took an average of two hours to administer. The interview schedule consisted almost exclusively of structured items with closed response alternatives.Analytical Strategies: Modified Guttman Scaling Five drug classes were distinguished: 1) alcohol, including beer, wine or distilled spirits; 2) cigarettes; 3) marijuana, including hashish; 4) other illicit drugs, including psychedelics, cocaine, heroin and non-prescribed use of stimulants, sedatives, minor tranquilizers, major tranquilizers, antidepressants, and methadone; and 5) prescribed psychotropic drugs, including minor tranquilizers, sedatives, and stimulants.Analyses of progression w...

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“…Big influence on it, besides parents, has peers and older siblings [3,40]. Smoking not only represents a risk for the health but as earlier research has shown, smoking in adolescence results in a greater risk of alcohol consumption and psychoactive drugs [41][42][43].…”

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