Drug Use and Lifestyles of American Youth

描述（由申请人提供）：该提案寻求监测未来（MTF）的五年延续，这是一项始于1975年的正在进行的流行病学和病原学研究和报告项目。 作为一项基础研究，MTF已成为美国青少年、大学生和年轻人吸毒趋势的最可靠信息来源。 每年将对以下人员进行具有全国代表性的抽样调查：（a）八年级、十年级和十二年级学生（每年约140所学校每年级16 000人）;（B）19-30岁、35岁、40岁和45岁的高中毕业生小组（通过邮寄）;（c）从1991-93年毕业生的八年级班级中抽取的小组（通过邮寄）。 这些数据收集程序（在学校和通过邮件）具有很高的成本效益。 这项研究的队列顺序设计允许测量和区分三种类型的变化-年龄（发展），时期（历史）和队列。 每一种类型都有不同的决定因素，大多数药物都有这三种类型。 将监测可能解释历史趋势和队列差异的因素。 MTF的进一步目标是记录药物使用的自然历史和成年中期的相关态度;确定社会角色和社会环境的哪些转变促成了这些转变;并确定这些角色和环境的哪些特征最具影响力。 该研究将检查许多其他假设的心理，行为和社会决定因素的重要性药物使用（包括对药物的态度和信念，反广告，角色建模和访问限制），以及药物使用的一系列潜在后果（包括身体健康，心理健康，地位实现和角色表现）。 调查人员将继续促进其他人将MTF数据用于各种研究目的，包括政策评估。 这项研究的广泛测量包括：（a）大量合法和非法药物的开始、使用和停止，（B）对这些药物的态度和信念，以及对可获得性的看法、同伴规范和榜样群体之间的规范，（c）其他行为和个人特征（犯罪、学校表现、计划和愿望等），以及（d）关键社会环境的各个方面（家庭、工作、学校和社会角色地位、经历和过渡（婚姻、怀孕、为人父母、离婚））。 研究结果将继续对理解和预防从青春期到中年的药物使用和滥用产生重大影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal seeks a five-year continuation of Monitoring the Future (MTF), an ongoing epidemiological and etiological research and reporting project begun in 1975. As well as being a basic research study, MTF has become the nation's most reliable source of information on trends in drug use among American adolescents, college students, and young adults. Annual, nationally representative sample surveys will be conducted of (a) eighth, tenth, and twelfth graders (16,000 in about 140 schools per year per grade), (b) panels of high school graduates aged 19-30, 35, 40 and 45 (by mail), and (c) panels drawn from the eighth grade classes of 1991-93 graduates (by mail). These data collection procedures (in-school and by mail) are highly cost efficient. The study's cohort-sequential design permits the measurement and differentiation of three types of changes--age (developmental), period (historical) and cohort. Each type has different kinds of determinants, and all three types have occurred for most drugs. Factors that may explain historical trends and cohort differences will be monitored. MTF has the further objectives of documenting the natural history of drug use and related attitudes through middle adulthood; determining what transitions in social roles and social environments contribute to them; and determining what features of those roles and environments are most influential. The study will examine the importance of many other hypothesized psychological, behavioral, and social determinants of drug use (including attitudes and beliefs about drugs, counter-advertising, role-modeling, and access limitations), as well as a range of potential consequences of drug use (including physical health, psychological well-being, status attainment, and role performance). The investigators will continue to facilitate use of MTF data by others for a hose of research purposes, including policy evaluation. The study's extensive measurement covers (a) initiation, use, and cessation for a great many licit and illicit drugs, (b) attitudes and beliefs about these drugs, as well as perceived availability, peer norms, and norms among role model groups, (c) other behaviors and individual characteristics (delinquency, school performance, plans and aspirations, etc.), and (d) aspects of key social environments (home, work, school and social role statuses, experiences, and transitions (marriage, pregnancy, parenthood, divorce). Study results will continue to have major implications for understanding and preventing drug use and abuse from adolescence through middle adulthood.