Predicting use and maintenance of use of substances in Scottish adolescents

It was aimed firstly to investigate prevalence rates and consumption patter ns Of smoking, alcohol use, and drug use in a sample of Scottish adolescent s, and secondly to study the role of demographic (grade, gender parental so cioeconomic and educational status), school (Quality of School Life (Q.S.L. ), school stress), nonschool (well-being) and personality (affectivity self -esteem, locus of control) factors in predicting use and maintenance of use of tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs. For the purposes of the study, a s et of measures was distributed to secondary school pupils (n = 425), in the Stirling area of Scotland. Differences and predictive values of these fact ors were investigated for users versus nonusers and regular versus occasion al users for smoking, alcohol, and drugs separately. It was found that havi ng tried smoking or alcohol could be predicted at best from school stress b ut having tried drugs from peer self-esteem. Maintenance of smoking was pre dicted at best from Q.S.L. and of drinking from peer self-esteem. None of t he factors studied in the present research were found to predict significan tly maintenance of drug use. Implications of these findings for decreasing prevalence of substance use are discussed.