Drug use and its social covariates from the period of adolescence to young adulthood. Some implications from longitudinal studies.

This chapter presents a review and discussion of the dynamic relationship between drug use, especially the use of illicit drugs, and its social covariates from the period of adolescence to young adulthood. The discussion is based primarily on longitudinal studies. In particular, I include a review and discussion of my collaborative studies with Kandel, in which we employ life-course perspectives for the analysis of natural drug and life histories of individuals based on event-history models. Specifically, I discuss five covariates: (1) age, (2) onset age of drug use, (3) historical period, (4) family and work roles, and (5) influence of significant others, with the dynamic interdependence between drug use and family and work roles as the major topic of discussion. The discussion also includes some insights into the issue of causation vs. selection effects regarding the influence of drug use on life-course pattern, and presents a novel aspect of indirect effects in the analysis of the determinants of drug use progression.