NCJ Number
168762
Date Published
1996
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This is an executive summary of the 1995 edition of the Partnership Attitude Tracking Study, which monitors, on an ongoing basis, the drug-related behavior and attitudes of preteens, teens and adults.
Abstract
While teen drug use remains far below peak levels of the late 1970s, the survey of 9,342 teenagers, preteens, and parents confirms that a profound reversal in drug trends, driven by changes in teen attitudes about marijuana, is continuing. Teens are less likely to consider drug use harmful and risky, and more likely to believe that drug use is widespread and tolerated, and feel more pressure to try illegal drugs than teens did just two years earlier. Key findings from this study include the following: (1) In a wide variety of categories, teenagers in 1995 saw significantly less physical and social risks in marijuana and drugs and perceived more "benefits" in drug use; (2) Preteens remain defiantly antidrug but report more drug use around them; (3) Baby Boomer parents surveyed in 1995 were drug experienced but few were using drugs at the time of the survey; (4) The vast majority of Boomer parents do not want their children experimenting with drugs, including marijuana; (5) More parents say they are talking to their teens about drugs today than were two years ago, but Boomer parents seriously underestimate drug experimentation among their own kids; and (6) Parents and teens experience a communications gap when discussing drug use. Notes