PREDICTING SUBSTANCE USE IN EARLY ADOLESCENCE BASED ON PARENT AND TEACHER ASSESSMENT OF CHILDHOOD PSYCHIATRIC-DISORDER - RESULTS FROM THE ONTARIO CHILD HEALTH STUDY FOLLOW-UP

This article examines relationships between psychiatric disorder, poor school performance, family dysfunction and low family income in a coh ort of 8-12-year-olds and use of tobacco, marijuana and hard drugs 4 y ears later. Conduct disorder assessed by teachers predicted use of alc ohol and hard drugs, while low family income and poor school performan ce predicted use of tobacco. Neither attention-deficit disorder nor em otional disorder was related to adolescent substance use. Although beh avioural deviance in childhood is associated with adolescent substance use, it has limited potential for identifying groups at risk in the g eneral population for purposes of preventing substance use in later ye ars.