ARE TEENS WHO USE DRUGS MALADJUSTED?

Volume 28, Issue 484 February 5, 2007

Anna C. Spencer

The perceptions of adolescents as being risk takers, combined with the high prevalence of drug experimentation during adolescence, has prompted some researchers to suggest that adolescents who refrain from experimenting with drugs may be psychologically or socially maladjusted.

Apparently, they’re wrong. According to a recent study, adolescents who refrain from experimenting with drugs are psychologically and socially better adjusted during the transition to adulthood.

The longitudinal study examined three groups of high school seniors, who were classified by their lifetime marijuana use (abstainers, experimenters and frequent users). Researchers compared psychosocial functioning at grade twelve and again at age 23. Adolescent abstainers from marijuana often fared better than experimenters and frequent users on several indicators of functioning, including school engagement, family and peer relations, mental health, and deviant behavior. By age 23, abstainers were more likely than both groups of users to have earned a college degree and were less likely to be involved in problem behaviors such as selling drugs and stealing. The study appeared in the January, 2007 issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Teens Maladjusted
Source: Are Drug Experimenters Better Adjusted Than Abstainers and Users? A Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Marijuana Use, Journal of Adolescent Health, January 2007.