National Trends in Drug Use and Related Factors Among American High School Students and Yo

Monitoring the Future survey data on drug use prevalence and trends among U.S. high school seniors, college students, and young adults from 1975 to 1986. The monograph reports specific prevalence rates for marijuana, cocaine, and stimulants, and tracks changes over time. The study was authored by Lloyd D. Johnston.

Use Cases

• Modeling trends in illicit drug use prevalence over time based on reported annual rates.
• Analyzing demographic differences in substance use based on reported sex and age group comparisons.
• Investigating correlations between different substance types based on reported co-occurrence of marijuana, cocaine, and stimulant use.
• Assessing the impact of specific substances like crack cocaine based on mentions of trends toward regular and purified forms.

Strengths

• Provides specific prevalence percentages for key substances (e.g., 39% for marijuana among seniors in 1986).
• Covers a multi-year time series from 1975 to 1986, allowing trend analysis.
• Includes comparisons across population subgroups (high school seniors, college students, young adults).
• Reports on multiple substance types and usage patterns (e.g., daily use, heavy drinking).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of the Lifestyles and Values of Youth.

Collection Method

Ongoing US research and reporting program, likely survey-based.

Time Range

1975-1986

Freshness

Data covers the period 1975-1986; last update is unknown.

Geography

United States