REASONS ADOLESCENTS DONT USE DRUGS - EXPLORING A DEPTH OF ACCEPTANCE MODEL

Adolescent's reasons for not using drugs were examined for evidence of factors that might lead to differential resistance to drug use. Six t housand eight-hundred and forty-one sixth, eighth, tenth, and twelfth grade students were administered a comprehensive drug survey which inc luded: 1) demographic information, 2) reasons not to use drugs, and 3) self-reports of lifetime and current (30-day) drug use across sixteen drug categories. The reasons for not using drugs were then factor ana lyzed and the results compared to a ''Depth of Acceptance'' (DOA) mode l consisting of four orientations: External Outcome, Social, and Perso nal. These orientations are thought both to represent distinct immuniz ation factors and to be differentially related in strength to lifetime and current drug use. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed a close f it between the hypothesized orientations and factor loadings among the sixteen items. Collectively, the sixteen items were also found to be excellent predictors of both lifetime and current drug use. While mult iple stepwise regression analyses did reveal differential predictive s trengths between orientation and drug use, the misclassification of a single item apparently attenuated the results for Social Orientation. The DOA-model appears to provide a useful framework for ''fine-tuning' ' prevention messages based on factors that immunize against drug use.