When Four Months Equal a Year: Inconsistencies in Student Reports of Drug Use

In: Public opinion quarterly: journal of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, Band 45, Heft 4, S. 536-548

Abstract

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.