Substance use among gay and lesbian adolescents

Surveys at a Massachusetts high school used multiple items to identify gay, lesbian, and bisexual teenagers. Students with consistent homosexual prefe rences had greatly elevated rates of substance use. Those who displayed a h omosexual preference but answered less consistently also had somewhat highe r rates of substance use but were closer to heterosexual youths than to mor e consistent homosexual youths. The differences in substance use were least for alcohol use and greater for "hard" drugs. (C) 2001 by The Haworth Pres s, Inc. All rights reserved.