Monitoring the Future: National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975-2012. Volume I: Secondary School Students.

摘要

Monitoring the Future (MTF) is an investigator-initiated study that originated with and is conducted by a team of research professors at the University of Michigans Institute for Social Research. Since its onset in 1975, it has been continuously funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuseone of the National Institutes of Healthunder a series of peer-reviewed, competitive research grants. The 2012 survey, reported here, is the 38th consecutive survey. MTF contains ongoing series of national surveys of both American adolescents and adults. It has provided the nation with a vital window into the important but largely hidden problem behaviors of illegal drug use, alcohol use, tobacco use, anabolic steroid use, and psychotherapeutic drug use. For nearly four decades it has provided 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 and nongovernmental organizations in the field some practical approaches for intervening. A widespread epidemic of illicit drug use emerged in the 1960s among American youth, and since then dramatic changes have occurred in the use of nearly all drugs involved, as well as alcohol and tobacco. Of particular importance, as discussed in detail below, many new illicit drugs have emerged, along with some new forms of cigarettes and alcoholic beverages. Among the newly abused substances are some new classes of drugs, including over-the-counter medications, drugs taken for strength enhancement, new forms of tobacco, and a number of socalled club drugs. More recently synthetic drugs, including synthetic marijuana and bath salts, which were developed to sidestep restrictions of the Drug Enforcement Administration, have been added to MTF coverage. Unfortunately, while many new substances have been added to the list, very few have been removed because they have remained popular. Throughout these many changes, substance use among the nations youth has remained a major concern for parents, teachers, youth workers, health professionals, law enforcement, and policymakers, largely because substance use is one of the greatest and yet most preventable causes of morbidity and mortality both during and after adolescence. This annual monograph series has been the primary vehicle for disseminating MTFs epidemiological findings. The latest two-volume monograph presents the results of the 38th survey of drug use and related attitudes and beliefs among American high school seniors, the 33rd such survey of American college students, and the 22nd 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 50.