Monitoring the Future National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975-2015. Volume I, Secondary School Students
Author: Miech, Richard A.
Date: 2016-06-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Secondary School Students,College Students,Grade 8,Grade 10,Grade 12,Young Adults,Drug Abuse,Incidence,Behavior,Age Differences,Beliefs,Social Influences,Dropouts,Attendance,Trend Analysis,Narcotics,Stimulants,Experience,Marijuana,Drinking,Alcohol Abuse,Gender Differences,Smoking,Racial Differences,Ethnicity,Questionnaires,Surveys,Geographic Regions,Population Trends,Parent Background,Educational Attainment,College Bound Students,Socioeconomic Status,Peer Influence,Parent Attitudes,Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder,Drug Therapy,College Attendance,Motor Vehicles,Risk,Behavior Problems,National Surveys,Adults,Cocaine,Inhalants,Lysergic Acid Diethylamide

Monitoring the Future (MTF) is designed to give sustained attention to substance use among the nation's youth and adults. It is an investigator-initiated study that originated with and is conducted by a team of research professors at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. Since its onset in 1975, MTF has been continuously funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse--one of the National Institutes of Health--under a series of peer-reviewed, competitive research grants. The 2015 survey, reported here, is the 41st consecutive survey of 12th-grade students and the 25th such survey of 8th and 10th graders. MTF contains ongoing series of national surveys of both American adolescents and adults. It provides the nation with a vital window into the important but often hidden problem behaviors of illegal drug use, alcohol abuse, tobacco use, anabolic steroid abuse, and psychotherapeutic drug abuse. For four decades MTF has helped provide a clearer view of the changing topography of these problems among adolescents and adults, a better understanding of the dynamics of factors that drive some of these problems, and a better understanding of some of their consequences. It has also given policymakers, government agencies, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the field some practical approaches for intervening. This annual monograph series has been a primary vehicle for disseminating MTF's epidemiological findings. This latest two-volume monograph presents the results of the 41st survey of drug use and related attitudes and beliefs among American high school seniors, the 36th such survey of American college students, and the 25th such survey of 8th- and 10th-grade students. Importantly, results are also reported for high school graduates followed in a series of panel studies through age 55. Results from the samples of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders are contained in this volume, which is preceded by four national press releases2,3,4,5 and a briefer monograph6 summarizing the findings on adolescents; the latter is published online on or about January 31st each year. Results on college students and other adults are reported annually in Volume II, 7 published a few months after this volume. An annual monograph on risk and protective behaviors for the spread of HIV/AIDS8 among young adults was added beginning in 2009. (In years prior to 2009, findings from the study on risk and protective behaviors for the spread of HIV/AIDS were contained in Volume II.) All MTF publications, including press releases, are available on the project website. Two of the major topics included in the present volume are (a) the prevalence and frequency of use of a great many substances, both licit and illicit, among American secondary school students in 8th, 10th, and 12th grades and (b) historical trends in use by students in those grades. Distinctions are made among important demographic subgroups in these populations based on gender, college plans, region of the country, population density, parent education, and race/ethnicity. MTF has demonstrated that key attitudes and beliefs about drug use are important determinants of usage trends, in particular the amount of risk to the user perceived to be associated with the various drugs and disapproval of using them; thus, those measures also are tracked over time, as are students' perceptions of certain relevant aspects of the social environment--in particular, perceived availability, peer norms, use by friends, and exposure to use by others of the various drugs. Data on grade of first use, discontinuation of use, trends in use in lower grades, and intensity of use are also reported here. (For &quot;Monitoring the Future National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975-2016. Volume II, College Students &amp; Adults Ages 19-55&quot; see ED578605.]