The study examined: (1) the effects of youngsters’ vocational and relationship experiences on their soft drug use, directly or by identity formation; (2) the effects of adherence to non-traditional values of youngsters on their soft drug use, directly or by identity formation; (3) the effects of parental divorce and affective involvement on youngsters’ soft drug use; and (4) the differences in these effects on boys and girls. The study used data from the Dutch national panel study Utrecht Study of Adolescent Development, a study of developmental processes as they occur in the life course of young people during the 1990's. It tested hypotheses on two waves of a sample of 1,966 respondents between 15 and 27 years of age. Vocational and relationship experiences in adolescence correlated with the use of soft drugs. A low score on relational identity was only a minor risk factor for using soft drugs. Adherence to non-conventional norms and values increased the chance of using soft drugs. Table, figure, references