Predictors of drug and alcohol abuse among children and adolescents

Almost 1000 children and adolescents participated in a survey examining alcohol and drug use and the influence of personality and socioeconomic variables. One of the most consistent findings was the contribution of the personality construct “addiction” (a composite of psychoticism, neuroticism and introversion) in predicting drug and alcohol usage among adolescents: self-perceived physical ill-health was a significant predictor of tobacco, alcohol and cannabis usage, but not cocaine and solvent use. Adolescents reporting inferior self-image were less likely to use the illicit drugs, cannabis or cocaine. The implications of these findings for social policy making are discussed.