Longitudinally foretelling drug usage in adolescence: early childhood personality and environmental precursors

Drug usage in early adolescence (age 14) was related to concurrent and preschool personality characteristics for a sample of 54 girls and 51 boys. The personality concomitants and antecedents of drug use differed somewhat as a function of gender and the drug used. At age 14, for both sexes, the use...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Child development 1988-04, Vol.59 (2), p.336-355
Main Authors: Block, J, Block, J.H, Keyes, S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
4-H Youth Development Program
Adolescence
Adolescent
Adolescent Behavior
Adolescents
Age
Biological and medical sciences
Cannabis
Cannabis sativa
child development
Child Rearing
Child, Preschool
cognitive development
Daughters
Drug abuse
Drug dependence
Drugs
early adolescence
Ego
family relations
Female
gender differences
hard drugs
Humans
individual characteristics
Intelligence
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Marijuana
Marijuana use
Medical sciences
Mothers
Nursery schools
Personality
prediction
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
psychosocial factors
self-perception
Sex Factors
Social psychiatry. Ethnopsychiatry
Sociocultural environment
Street Drugs
substance abuse
youth development
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Summary:Drug usage in early adolescence (age 14) was related to concurrent and preschool personality characteristics for a sample of 54 girls and 51 boys. The personality concomitants and antecedents of drug use differed somewhat as a function of gender and the drug used. At age 14, for both sexes, the use of marijuana was related to ego undercontrol, while the use of harder drugs reflected an absence of ego-resiliency, with undercontrol, also a contributing factor. At ages 3/4, subsequent adolescent drug usage in girls related to both undercontrol and lower ego-resiliency. In boys, adolescent drug usage related strongly, during their nursery school years, to undercontrol and with resiliency having no long-term implications. Early family environment related to adolescent drug usage in girls but not in boys. Drug usage in adolescent girls was related to homes earlier identified as unstructured and laissez-faire, where there was little pressure to achieve. Drug usage related to other substance use and, in boys, to IQ decline from age 11 to 18. Implications of these results for contemporary views regarding adolescent drug usage are discussed.
ISSN:0009-3920
1467-8624
DOI:10.2307/1130314