Are drug experimenters better adjusted than abstainers and users?: a longitudinal study of adolescent marijuana use.
OBJECTIVE
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.
Tucker
Joan S
JS
RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, California 90407-2138, USA. jtucker@rand.org
Ellickson
Phyllis L
PL
Collins
Rebecca L
RL
Klein
David J
DJ
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002140:California / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008385:Marijuana Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D009922:Oregon / Q000453:epidemiology; D012917:Social Adjustment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires