SENSATION SEEKING AND DRUG ABUSE PREVENTION

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Approximately half of all adolescents and young adults can be classified as high sensation seekers (HSS). In recent research, we have found that high sensation seekers use marijuana, cocaine, alcohol, and other drugs by ratios of 2/1 up to greater than 7/1 compared to low sensation seekers (LSS). The connection between this biologically-based trait and drug use also is supported by studies reporting significantly higher probabilities for drug use by HSS than by LSS (Zuckerman, 1987). Our research also indicates sensation seeking strongly affects responses to drug abuse prevention messages. Its connection with drug use appears to suggest there is a high probability that HSS will become drug users unless there is strong social intervention. The obverse also may be true: LSS are unlikely to become drug users unless there is strong social intervention for use, such as through peer influences. These findings would appear to have considerable implications for approaches to drug abuse prevention but they also raise a number of questions about how to design the most effective approaches. The research proposed here involves a multi-method approach to some of the fundamental questions which need to be answered if alternative approaches are to be considered. It involves (1) a multi-wave longitudinal study of sensation-seeking, peer relationships, drug adoption, and levels of use by a population of adolescents as part of an already-funded study evaluating Project DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), a primary prevention program for adolescents being conducted on a county-wide basis in Lexington, Kentucky; and (2) development of protocols for drug abuse prevention messages and programs on the basis of (a) reanalysis of existing data to refine connections between subscales of sensation seeking and drug use, and (b) focus group interviews with adolescents and young adults to help identify alternative activities which would serve as acceptable substitutes for drug use.