Demographic Subgroup Trends among Adolescents in the Use of Various Licit and Illicit Drugs, 1975-2017. Monitoring the Future Occasional Paper Series. Paper 90

This occasional paper presents national demographic subgroup data for the 1975-2017 Monitoring the Future (MTF) national survey results on 8th, 10th, and 12th graders' use of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. MTF is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health under a series of investigator-initiated, competitive research grants to the University of Michigan. The study covers all major classes of illicit and licit psychoactive drugs for an array of population subgroups. The 2017 subgroup data presented accompany the "Monitoring the Future National Survey Results on Drug Use: 1975-2017: Overview, Key Findings on Adolescent Drug Use" and the "Monitoring the Future National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975-2017: Volume I, Secondary School Students." Prior to 2014 subgroup data were available in tabular form only in Appendices B and D of the relevant year's "Volume I." Since 2014, the MTF subgroup definitions and data have been presented in this series of occasional papers, in both tables and figures to facilitate the examination and interpretation of trend data. The "Overview of Key Findings" presents trends in prevalence, perceived risk, disapproval, and perceived availability for most drugs under study and a brief description of subgroup differences. Volume I contains a description of MTF's design and purposes, as well as extended reporting on substance use of all kinds--licit and illicit--and a number of related factors, such as attitudes and beliefs about drugs, age of initiation, noncontinuation of drug use, perceived availability, relevant conditions in the social environment, history of daily marijuana use, use of drugs for the treatment of ADHD, and sources of prescription drugs used outside of medical supervision. The trends offered in this report in tabular and graphic forms cover demographic subgroups based on: (1) Gender; (2) College plans; (3) Region of the country; (4) Population density; (5) Education level of the parents (a proxy for socioeconomic level); and (6) Racial/ethnic identification. Detailed descriptions of the demographic categories are provided in the section starting on page 385 of this paper. The graphs and tables in this occasional paper present trend data for 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade respondents separately. Data for 12th grade begins with 1975, the first year in which a nationally representative sample of high school seniors was surveyed. Data for 8th and 10th grades begin with 1991, when the study's nationally representative annual surveys were expanded to include those lower grade levels. [For the report from the previous year "Demographic Subgroup Trends among Adolescents in the Use of Various Licit and Illicit Drugs, 1975-2016. Monitoring the Future Occasional Paper Series. Paper 88," see ED578738. For "Monitoring the Future National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975-2017: Overview, Key Findings on Adolescent Drug Use," see ED589762. For "Monitoring the Future National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975-2017. Volume I, Secondary School Students," see ED589763. For "Monitoring the Future National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975-2017. Volume II, College Students & Adults Ages 19-55," see ED589764.]