Students with emotional and behavioral problems have poor academic and behavioral outcomes, both short- and long-term. Psychotropic medications are commonly used as an intervention with this population and their use has increased significantly. This study investigated adolescent and family variables associated with medication use among high school…

Background: Much etiologic research has focused on individual-level risk factors for teen dating violence (TDV); therefore, less is known about school-level and neighborhood-level risk factors. We examined the association between alcohol outlet density around high schools and TDV victimization and the association between markers of physical…

Adolescent risk-taking can potentially result in serious individual and societal consequences. Previous research demonstrates that emotional and behavioral problems, particularly externalizing behaviors, are significantly associated with an array of risky behaviors such as substance use, sexual behavior, injury, and violence. However, the…

Background: Adolescence is a developmental period when dating behavior is first initiated and when the risk of abuse by or against a dating partner begins to emerge. It is also one in which experimentation with alcohol and illicit substances typically begins. The current study examined the association between recent alcohol use and recent…

Background: Cannabis is a substance frequently consumed by adolescents, which is a risk factor for many psychopathological disorders. At the same time, adolescents in high-schools are likely to be exposed to significant stress from school that can sometimes lead to a burnout syndrome. Objective: The purpose of this study is to explore the impact…

The identification of developmentally specific windows at which key predictors of adolescent substance use are most influential is a crucial task for informing the design of appropriately targeted substance use prevention and intervention programs. The current study examined effects of conduct problems and depressive symptomatology on changes in…

The purpose of the study is to assess the relationship between timing of adolescent development and risk factors for suicide. Nationally representative data from the Add Health survey were used. The relationship of sociodemographic characteristics, known risk factors, and physical developmental timing and cognitive developmental style to suicide…

Background: Chronotype refers to individuals' preference for morning or evening activities. Its two dimensions (morningness and eveningness) are related to a number of academic outcomes. Aims: The main goal of the study was to investigate the incremental validity of chronotype as a predictor of academic achievement after controlling for a number…

In the present study, we describe correlates of 30-day cigarette and alcohol use among two samples of high school students, one in the Russian Federation (n = 365), and one in the United States (n = 965). The correlates used in the analyses are based on the theory of triadic influence, which organizes predictors of adolescent substance use into…

Monitoring the Future (MTF) is a long-term study of American adolescents, college students, and adults through age 50. It has been conducted annually by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research since its inception in 1975. It is supported under a series of investigator-initiated, competing research grants from the National…

The Monitoring the Future (MTF) study is an ongoing series of national surveys of American adolescents and adults that 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 more than a third of…

This study of a statewide, stratified random sample of 3,335 public high school students is designed to examine the robustness of self-control in predicting alcohol consumption, other drug use, crimes against persons, and property offenses. Comparisons in prediction of these forms of delinquency are made between two measures of self-control,…

Using a sample of White and Native American high school students, the authors provide a test of (a) self-control theory's invariance thesis and (b) native traditionalism as an explanation of Native American substance use. Self-control significantly influenced all forms of substance use when controlling for race and in race-specific analyses.…

General Strain Theory (GST) argues that drug use is one way adolescents mitigate negative emotions brought on by aversive environmental stimuli. To date, many of the empirical tests of the strain-drug use relationship have neglected to include measures of negative emotion, despite its prominence in GST's etiology of deviant behavior. The following…

This study assesses the effects of three factors on dropping out of high school and later drug use: antecedents to dropout; predictors of drug use articulated by criminological theories (e.g., social bonds, peers, and strain); and postdropout factors associated with adult social bonds (e.g., marriage and employment). Two findings emerge from the…