Me. Bates et Ew. Labouvie, ADOLESCENT RISK-FACTORS AND THE PREDICTION OF PERSISTENT ALCOHOL AND DRUG-USE INTO ADULTHOOD, Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research, 21(5), 1997, pp. 944-950
Adolescence is a time of heightened risk for relatively intensive alco
hol and other drug use behaviors. However, heavy use is often ''adoles
cence-limited,'' giving way to moderation or cessation in adulthood, W
e examined individual differences in risk factors at age 18 that were
predictive of alternative alcohol and drug use trajectories from adole
scence to adulthood. Data were collected prospectively an four occasio
ns from participants in the Rutgers Health and Human Development Proje
ct. Subsets of individuals representing three prototypical trajectorie
s of (1) consistently low alcohol and drug use during adolescence and
early adulthood; (2) heavier alcohol or drug use during adolescence, b
ut not during adulthood; and (3) persistent heavier alcohol or drug us
e from adolescence into adulthood were found to differ significantly o
n a number of intrapersonal, behavioral, and environmental risk, facto
rs, with the adolescence-limited group consistently scoring between th
e other two groups. Based on these results, a composite risk index was
constructed. In the total sample, however, when the effect of alcohol
and drug use behaviors at age ?a was controlled, the composite risk i
ndex was unrelated to adult (age 28 to 31) levels of alcohol and drug
use and consequences, Thus, its this community sample, well-documented
risk factors assessed in adolescence did not exhibit any direct, Long
term effects on use intensity and problems in adulthood, It is conclud
ed that the assessed risk :actors (disinhibition, cognitive structure,
pity, deviant coping, friends' deviance, and stressful life events) a
re not immutable, but subject to individual and normative changes duri
ng the transition from adolescence to adulthood. More research is need
ed to determine the long-term stability of risk factors, and how chang
es in risk factors over time, discontinuities in what constitutes risk
in adolescence versus adulthood, and proximal adult protective factor
s that compensate for early risk contribute to developmental patterns
of use.