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The reasons that high school students give for their use of each of nine classes of licit and illicit substances are examined cross sectionally and over time. The data derive from the Monitoring the Future project, which involves annual surveys of large, nationally representative samples of American high school seniors. Reasons for use are found to vary substantially by drug, and also by degree of involvement with the drug; but reasons vary only to a rather limited degree by sex. An analysis of trends between 1976 and 1984 shows only a modest degree of change in the reasons given for using the various substances, despite the fact that prevalence rates for some drugs have changed substantially. Among the most commonly mentioned reasons for substance use are experimentation, social/recreational reasons, and relaxation.

A report on an important racial difference in patterns of responding to Likert-type items: blacks are more likely than whites to use the extreme response categories, particularly the positive end of agree-disagree scales. This finding appears consistently in several large-scale nationally representative surveys of youth. Response style indexes (agreement, disagreement, acquiescence, & extreme responding) display ranges of individual differences & cross-time stabilities comparable to commonly used personality measures. Response styles show no consistent differences by sex, & no appreciable r with indicators of family SES or educational accomplishments & aspirations. For both races, agreement tendencies are stronger in the South, especially in nonmetropolitan areas; however, controlling for geography does little to reduce overall black-white differences. The findings reveal potential pitfalls in dealing with racial differences in survey & personality measures, & illustrate the need for great caution in reporting & interpreting such differences. 4 Tables, 18 References. AA.

In an analysis of public & private high school senior classes of 1976 through 1979 (total N = 16,654), reports of f of drug use during the past month are roughly 3 times larger than would be estimated based on reports of use during the past year. This phenomenon appears fairly consistently for alcohol, marijuana, & 10 other categories of illicitly used drugs. The underreporting of events that are more distant in time has been observed in a wide range of surveys, & these findings are general & stable enough to fit in very well with that explanation. It is concluded that: self-reports of f of drug use during the past year, & also during the lifetime; are in many cases systematically underreported; that percentages reporting any use during a given interval are likely to be more accurate; &, further, that analyses of trends are likely to be largely valid, since biases are likely to be fairly constant from year to year. 3 Tables. Modified HA.

This article examines various aspects of school physical characteristics relating to problem behavior among students. We hypothesize that an attractive physical environment will be associated with less truancy, cigarette, alcohol, and marijuana use, whereas a negative physical environment will be associated with higher levels of these behaviors. Analyses use data from nationally representative samples of 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade students who participated in annual surveys conducted by the Monitoring the Future project from 2000 to 2003. Analyses also use data collected from principals and field interviewers of the same schools. Results based on multilevel logistic and linear regressions indicate that students are sensitive to schools' ambience and that the association of various aspects of the school's physical environment with students' problem behaviors is greater for 10th-grade students than for 8th and 12th-grade students. The implications of these findings for school policies and practices are discussed.

National data from Monitoring the Future were used to examine patterns and predictors of college attendance. Samples of American 12th-grade students from 1977 to 2003 were followed for 7 years (modal ages 18-25; N = 10,020). College attendance and graduation patterns varied considerably over historical time and based on family background. Substance use during high school predicted a greater likelihood of never attending (for cigarettes, illegal drugs), of graduating from a 2-year rather than a 4-year school (for cigarettes), and of dropping out versus graduating from a 4-year school (for cigarettes, marijuana, and other illegal drugs). High school binge drinking predicted lower college dropout, but only in models also controlling for cigarette, marijuana, and other illicit drug use. This study provides a needed overview of adolescent predictors of patterns of college attendance among American young adults over the past three decades.

This article examines trends and relationships involving high school seniors' military service plans, their college plans, and their actual entry into military service. Crosssectional and longitudinal data from the Monitoring the Future project show that, although individuals planning to complete college are less likely than average to plan on military service, the upward trend in college plans cannot account for many of the yearto-year changes in military propensity. Moreover, it now appears that the majority of young men expecting to enter military service also expect to complete a four-year college program. Most important, planning for college does not reduce enlistment rates among high propensity males, although for some of them it may delay entry by several years. These findings suggest that educational incentives for military service are now particularly important, given the high proportions of potential recruits with college aspirations.