Correlates of Cocaine Use among Adolescents

• Author: Bridget N. Fahy,Michael D. Newcomb,Rodney Skager
• DOI: 10.1177/002204268801800303
• Published date: 01 July 1988
• Date: 01 July 1988
• Subject Matter: Article

The

Journal

of Drug Issues, 18(3),327-354, 1988

CORRELATES OF COCAINE USE AMONG ADOLESCENTS

Michael

D.

Newcomb

Bridget

N.

Fahy

Rodney

Skager

In 1985, 2,926 seventh, ninth,

and

eleventh graders

from the Ventura County School District were sur-

veyed to determine the extent

of

their drug use

and

the psychosocial correlates

of

such use. The sample

was divided into roughly equal numbers

of

girls

and

boys. Differential patterns associated with cocaine

use were examined separately for each gender by

grade grouping for eight domains

of

variables. These

domains were selected on the basis

of

theory

and

previous research

and

include life satisfaction, emo-

tional distress, perceived adult drug use, peer toler-

ance

of

drug use, parental approval

of

drug use,

academic orientation, social conformity,

and

other

drug use. In general, cocaine use was significantly

correlated with several affective, attitudinal,

and

behavioral variables.

However,

only other drug use

was significantly

and

uniquely associated

with

cocaine use when all the other variables were con-

trolled. Thus, for this group of teenagers, there was

no discernable integrated lifestyle specificto cocaine;

cocaine use was integrated into a lifestyle

of

general

drug use or poly-drug use.

Adolescence is a very

turbulent

time for many individuals.

It

is characterized

by rebelliousness, challengingofauthority figures

and

for some, it is a time of

experimentation with drugs (e.g., Kandel et al., 1985).Evidence of adolescent drug

involvement is most clearly seen in

the

studies conducted by Johnston, O'Malley

~I~hae~

D. Newcomb, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist, an Associate Professor of Counseling PsycholollYat the

mvers,ty of Southern California, and an Adjunct Associate Professor of PsycholollYat the University ofCalifornia, Los

~geles.

He is principal investigator on several

grants

from the National

Institute

on Drug Abuse.

Brldpt

F'ahy

earned

er

b~chelor

of

arts

in psychology from UCLA in 1987. Currently, she performs neuropsychological testing of AIDS and

~~elmers

patients enrolled in research studies at the VA Medical Centerin Los Angeles.

Rodney

Skaller

is a Professor

;;' e

Graduate

School ofEducation. He holde a doctorate in Psychology from UCLA.This research was supported by

grant

AOI070from the National

Institute

on Drug Abuse. The assistance of

Julie

Speckartis gratefully acknowledged. Address

~rreslpondence

and reprint requests to: Dr. Michael Newcomb, Department of Psychology, University of California, Los

ge es, California 90024.1563.

o

Journal

of Drug Issues, Inc. 0022-0426/881031327-354 $1.00

327

NEWCOMB

and Bachman (1987) for

the

National Institute on Drug Abuse. The statistics

reported in these studies are helpful in understanding the percentage and extent

ofdrug use among the teenage population,

but

they fail to capture the complexity

ofthe drug-use phenomenon. The current research takes a closer look at the more

intricate aspects of drug use in general,

but

focuses most closely on cocaine use

among these individuals. Of all the drugs commonly used by adolescents,

research has failed to look at cocaine use and abuse in a manner appropriate to its

growing importance as a drug of use and abuse for a percentage of the adolescent

population.

Kandel et al. (1985) concluded

that

cocaine use was generally experimental in

nature

and

typically involved only a few experiences for a significant proportion of

those

that

report any cocaine use. Another study showed

that

in 1986,16.9%of all

high school seniors had used cocaine at least once in

their

lives, while 12.7%

had

used it in

the

past year, and 6.2% had used it in the

past

month (Johnston et aI.,

1987).

Although only modest percentages of adolescents are using cocaine, it is

important to

put

these statistics in

their

proper historical context. According to

Johnston et al.

(1987),

the percentage of high school seniors

that

had

ever used

cocaine

has

increased from 9.0% in 1975 to nearly double this in 1986, and

prevalence rates are substantially higher for young adults (e.g., Kandel et aI.,

1985; Newcomb and Bentler, 1986a).

The gender and age of

the

adolescent may provide clues to predictable patterns

in cocaine users. In

past

research,

it

has generally been found

that

males used

both a larger variety of drugs, as well as, a greater amount of each drug

than

females (Kandel et aI., 1985; Labouvie and McGee, 1986). O'Malley, Johnston and

Bachman

(1985)

reported that, on the average, the percentage of men

that

had

ever used cocaine was 4.9% greater

than

the percentage of women

that

had ever

used it. Clayton, Voss, Robbins and Skinner (1986) found the variance in cocaine

use between the sexes to be less

than

that

reported by O'Malley et al.

(1985),

although the trend was in the same direction of greater involvement among men

than

women. Newcomb and Bentler (1986b) found no significant difference

between men and women for using cocaine. A similar finding was reported by

Mills and Noyes

(1984).

Research supports the trend

that

cocaine use specifically,

and drug use in general, tends to increase with age or by grade during

adolescence (Newcomb and Bentler, 1986b; Huba

and

Bentler, 1980; O'Malley et

aI., 1985). O'Malley et al. (1985) reported

that

cocaine was different from other

drugs because initiation rates for cocaine were highest in the

last

two years ofhigh

school; they found

that

only 20% of eventual users initiated prior to

tenth

grade.

The findings of Mills and Noyes (1984) further supported this conclusion. In

addition, Clayton

et

al. (1986) found

that

rates

of initiation substantially

increased

just

after the high school years. In a sample of eighteen to twenty-five

year-olds, 34.5% of the men reported some use of cocaine in their lives compared

to 6.5% of the males who were from twelve to seventeen years at the time of

the

study. A similar finding was reported for women: Among those women between

eighteen and twenty-five, 22.3%

had

some cocaine involvement in their lives

compared to 6.4% of

the

women between twelve and seventeen.

School type and ethnicity are other demographic variables

that

may reflect

differences in adolescent cocaine use. By school type, we refer to possible

differences between students who are enrolled in regular public schools in

328

JOURNAL

OF

DRUG

ISSUES