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Distinguishing Drug Involvement by Gender

NCJ Number
157823
Author(s)
S S Simpson
Date Published
Unknown
Length
31 pages
Annotation
Data from a national sample of juveniles and young adults formed the basis of an analysis of two issues: (1) whether the underlying factors associated with drug use are similar to those predictive of drug dealing and (2) whether these exogenous factors vary by gender.
Abstract
The data came from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth for 1979 and 1980. Results revealed that drug use and drug use with dealing emerge from similar etiological factors. Furthermore, with two notable exceptions, these influences affect males and females in the same way. However, involuntary unemployment was a stronger predictor of female rather than male drug use, and unwed parenthood was related more to male participation in use and sales than it was to female participation. These findings may be historically dated, because the data were gathered before the crack-cocaine epidemic that emerged in the mid-1980's and before the harmful impacts of political policies and recession on the urban underclass. The new generation of youth are confronting new or exacerbated situational realities that may change the demographic patterns observed here. Future research should be sensitive to the interactive effects of gender, race, and class on drug involvement. Appended tables and 46 references