Teenage Drug Use: Uncertain Linkages With Either Pregnancy or School Dropout

摘要

The Committee's earlier reports discussed youth problems, using various kinds ofevidence, and also identified difficulties that confront researchers trying to connect drug use and other problems. The reports concluded that additional research was needed to better understand the relationships between teen drug use and either teen pregnancy or quitting school. We searched the published scientific literature. (We decided against using arrest data because of difficulties in comparing across geographic boundaries.) We also contacted experts in adolescent behavior to locate other studies or data since the Committee's last report in 1987, to answer two main questions: (1) what is the current status of, and what are recent trends in, teen drug use, pregnancy, and dropping out of school; (2) What has research learned since 1987 about the relationship between teen drug use and either pregnancy or dropping out. This report elaborates on the briefing we provided congressional staff on June 15, 1990.