Original article
Are Drug Experimenters Better Adjusted Than Abstainers and Users?: A Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Marijuana Use

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2006.03.012Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

Experimentation with substance use is normative during adolescence and prior research suggests that adolescents who refrain from experimentation may be psychologically maladjusted. This longitudinal study compared lifetime marijuana abstainers (n = 1177), experimenters (n = 873), and frequent users (n = 205) at grade 12 on psychosocial functioning during late adolescence and young adulthood.

Methods

Participants were recruited from middle schools in 1985 (grade 7) and assessed repeatedly, including in 1990 (grade 12) and 1995 (age 23). Self-report surveys assessed lifetime substance use at grade 12, and psychosocial functioning at grade 12 and age 23. Group differences after controlling for key demographics were estimated using multivariate logistic regression and analysis of covariance.

Results

Adolescent abstainers from marijuana often fared better (and in no case worse) than experimenters and frequent users both concurrently and later in life on school engagement, family and peer relations, mental health, and deviant behavior. Similar results were found in ancillary analyses using a definition of adolescent “abstainer” that also accounted for cigarette and alcohol use.

Conclusions

Results refute the idea that adolescents who abstain from substance use are maladjusted, and suggest instead that they function better than experimenters later in life, during the transition to young adulthood.

Section snippets

Participants

Participants in the original baseline sample were 6527 students recruited from 30 California and Oregon schools at grade 7 (1985), with follow-up assessments conducted in grades 8, 9, 10, and 12, and at ages 23 and 29 (2001). These adolescents participated in the RAND Adolescent Panel Study, conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the Project ALERT drug use prevention program for middle school children [23]. The schools were chosen to represent a wide range of community types, socioeconomic

Comparisons of Abstainers, Experimenters, and Frequent Users at Grade 12

Table 1 shows comparisons of the three substance use groups at grade 12. Socially, abstainers looked different from, but not specifically worse off than, substance-using youth. Abstainers tended to be less socially active in certain respects than nonabstainers, going to parties/dances less often than experimenters and frequent users, as well as dating less often than experimenters. However, it was not the case that abstainers refrained from these activities entirely, in that 63% had attended a

Discussion

Given that experimentation with substance use is normative during adolescence, are teens who choose to abstain from experimentation relatively maladjusted? Results from this study provide little support for this idea. Consistent with previous research indicating that abstainers are more introverted than substance users [15], [28], abstainers in this study appeared to be somewhat less socially engaged with their peers at grade 12. However, they did not report being more lonely, having less

Acknowledgment

The research reported in this article was funded by Grant R01DA13515 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

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