NCJ Number
197027
Journal
Addiction Volume: 97 Issue: 7 Dated: July 2002 Pages: 833-844
Editor(s)
Griffith Edwards
Date Published
July 2002
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This study was conducted to examine the childhood antecedents, such as shy and aggressive behavior, of marijuana and cocaine use in adulthood for 1,242 African-American first graders.
Abstract
The study design used was an epidemiological, longitudinal cohort study of African-American children, aged 6 and followed to age 32, living in Chicago and attending an inner-city school. The children, their teachers, and their families provided assessments over the life course. During adulthood, 952 participants were re-interviewed. The primary variables used in this study were first-grade teacher behavior ratings, readiness for school tests, self-reports of adolescent drug use, and social bonds and adult self-reports of drug use. Tables are included showing childhood and adolescent antecedents and adult substance use by gender, odds ratios of the effects of family background, childhood behavior, school bonds, and adolescent marijuana use on adult marijuana use, and also adult cocaine use by gender, and odds ratios of the effect of first-grade reading readiness scores on adult cocaine use by gender. The behavior traits of shyness and aggressiveness in first grade related positively to adult drug use as compared to those individuals who were neither. It was found that adolescent social bonds did not moderate the relationships of earlier childhood behavior to adult drug use. First grade shy females were less likely to use marijuana as adults than did non-shy first grade females. And males who had a high/superior readiness to learn scores in first grade were less likely to use cocaine as adults. Females scoring as poor performers in first grade were less likely to ever use cocaine compared to females with higher scores. It was concluded that the combination of shy and aggressive behavior is an important precursor for later male drug use. References