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Drug Trying and Drug Use Across Adolescence: A Longitudinal Study of Young People's Drug Taking in Two Regions of Northern England

NCJ Number
181325
Author(s)
Judith Aldridge; Howard Parker; Fiona Measham
Date Published
1999
Length
48 pages
Annotation
This is a longitudinal study of young people’s drug taking in two regions of northern England.
Abstract
The study followed more than 2,500 young people for 3 years: one group from age 13 to 15 and one group from age 16 to 17 years. The study proposed to measure the impact of an “integrated” drugs prevention program in towns in Northumbria and West Yorkshire. Young people lost between the first and second years of the study were more likely to have tried drugs than the average “in school” respondents. Overall rates of tobacco use were higher than the national average, with more than one-quarter of the younger respondents and more than 40 percent of the older cohort being current smokers. Their alcohol consumption was in line with the national picture, with about half the younger sample and 70 percent of the older group being at least weekly drinkers. For the older group, by the age of 16, 60 percent of Northumbrians and 53 percent from West Yorkshire had tried at least one illicit drug. Most young persons who tried a drug continued with further episodes of use right across adolescence. Tables, bibliography