Profiles of Drug Use and Attitudes Among Young Adolescents

Socioeconomic Context and Emotional‐Behavioral Achievement Links: Concurrent and Prospective Associations Among Low‐ and High‐Income Youth

“…This finding has been amply documented during early adolescence (Ennett, Flewelling, Lindrooth, & Norton, 1997; Lucas & Gilham, 1995) as well as during the high school years (Falck, Siegal, Wang, & Carlson, 1999; Luthar & D’Avanzo, 1999; Skager & Fisher, 1989), and has been found to persist even after accounting for emotional-behavioral difficulties (Luthar & D’Avanzo, 1999). Interestingly, more fine-grained evidence suggests that family socioeconomic status, assessed in middle adolescence, alone may not influence substance use by the transition to adulthood (see Bryant, Schulenberg, O’Malley, Bachman, & Johnston, 2003), but rather it is the relative affluence of community and school settings which have been found to influence patterns of use.…”

Patterns and Correlates of Substance Use Among Affluent, Suburban High School Students

“…However, when they have examined patterns of substance use at the school or community level, researchers have often found more use among teens living in affluent, suburban settings when they are compared with teens living in less affluent, rural or urban settings (Ennett, Flewelling, Lindrooth, & Norton, 1997;Falck, Siegal, Wang, & Carlson, 1999;Lucas & Gilham, 1995;Skager & Fisher, 1989). In one of the few direct comparisons of two high schools selected to represent opposite ends of the socioeconomic continuum, Luthar and D'Avanzo (1999) found that, after allowance for individual differences in emotional-behavioral disturbance, a cohort of largely European American 10th-grade students living in an affluent, suburban community reported more substance use than a cohort of largely ethnic minority students living in an economically disadvantaged, urban community.…”

The Changing Pattern of Substance Abuse in Urban Adolescents

“…From the established level of documented substance use in our younger adolescents, it is clear that interventions seeking to reduce drug use, premature sexuality, and other risk behaviors must target elementary and junior high school aged children. 29 This is a process that must go forward as soon as possible and be as broad-based as possible. The future of a whole generation is at stake.…”