Adolescent drug use and psychological health: A longitudinal inquiry.

Abstract

The relation between psychological characteristics and drug use was investigated in subjects studied longitudinally, from preschool through age 18. Adolescents who had engaged in some drug experimentation (primarily with marijuana) were the best-adjusted in the sample. Adolescents who used drugs frequently were maladjusted, showing a distinct personality syndrome marked by interpersonal alienation, poor impulse control, and manifest emotional distress. Adolescents who, by age 18, had never experimented with any drug were relatively anxious, emotionally constricted, and lacking in social skills. Psychological differences between frequent drug users, experimenters, and abstainers could be traced to the earliest years of childhood and related to the quality of parenting received. The findings indicate that (a) problem drug use is a symptom, not a cause, of personal and social maladjustment, and (b) the meaning of drug use can be understood only in the context of an individual's personality structure and developmental history. It is suggested that current efforts at drug prevention are misguided to the extent that they focus on symptoms, rather than on the psychological syndrome underlying drug abuse.

Historical Change in the Link between Adolescent Deviance Proneness and Marijuana Use, 1979–2004

“…That is, deviance proneness has been a consistent predictor of adolescents' occasional marijuana use (as compared to no use), and adolescents' regular marijuana use (versus occasional use) across time and gender. These results thus affirm that adolescents' deviance proneness is not only related to regular, more problematic use of marijuana but is also related to occasional use of marijuana, thus disconfirming prior suggestions that only regular use of marijuana use is associated with a deviant behavioral profile (Shedler & Block, 1990).…”

“…In accord with prior research (Shedler & Block, 1990;Stice, Myers, & Brown, 1998), we expected that deviance proneness would show a particularly strong association with regular marijuana use among users across historical cohorts. In addition, we examined whether youth who showed less problematic, occasional use patterns would show greater deviance propensity relative to non-users across historical cohorts given that prior research affords mixed support for this hypothesis (Shedler & Block, 1990;Tucker, Ellickson, Collins, & Klein, 2006). This study extends prior historical research by using a factor-analytic model of the theoretically and empirically-grounded construct of deviance proneness as a predictor of adolescent marijuana use.…”

Drug abuse prevention in post-legalization America: What could it be like?

“…In fact, recent research by Shedler and Block (1990) supports my long term informal observation that adolescents who experiment with drugs are on the average more, rather than less, mentally healthy than those who just say no.…”

Atitudes frente ao uso de álcool, maconha e outras drogas: verificando relações de predição e mediação

“…Ademais, o consenso entre os pesquisadores acerca da natureza multideterminada do uso de drogas, condizente com o número de variáveis e teorias explicativas que se apresenta (Hawkins et al, 1992;Petraits et al, 1995), nos impele a ter em conta, em pesquisas futuras, variáveis de naturezas distintas, que tenham mostrado sua importância em pesquisas prévias; como os traços de personalidade e a pressão dos grupos e normas sociais (Hawkins et al, 1992;Hopwood et al, 2007;Merenäkka et al, 2003;Sussman, Dent, & McCullar, 2000), caracterizadas como importantes peças deste "quebra-cabeças" (Petraits et al, 1995). Este amplo programa de pesquisas deve motivar ainda mais pesqui-sadores em diversas partes do nosso país, se pretende-se realmente melhor entender e lidar com um dos maiores desafios de todos os tempos, de proporções e custos mundiais (Meloni & Laranjeira, 2004;Shedler & Block, 1990; United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime [UNDOC], 2006).…”

“…Objetivou-se observar, especificamente, se as atitudes frente ao álcool predizem atitudes frente à maconha e se estas últimas predizem as atitudes frente às drogas (Atitudes frente ao álcool Atitudes frente à maconha Atitudes frente às drogas). Buscar-se-á ainda conhecer o poder preditivo do sexo e da idade nas atitudes frente às drogas, pois pesquisas demonstram que estas variáveis são influentes no uso, nas atitudes frente ao uso e em outras variáveis relacionadas ao uso (Correia, Simons, Carey, & Borsari, 1998;Donnermeyer & Huang, 1991;Gouveia et al, 2007;Gouveia et al, 2005;Hawkins et al, 1992;Petraits et al, 1995;Shedler & Block, 1990). …”