Since 1975, the Monitoring the Future study has provided annual data on trends in use of licit and illicit drugs among America's young people, and the reasons for those trends. The study, funded by a series of research grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, consists of annual surveys of nationally representative samples of eighth and tenth grade students (since 1991), and twelfth grade students (since 1975); and mail-out surveys of subsamples of previously participating twelfth grade students (since 1976). In-school questionnaires are administered by professional interviewers to about 50,000 students in approximately 420 public and private schools per year. Approximately 12,500 mail-out surveys are completed each year, following respondents through forty years of age.
(SEE ALSO: Alcohol Use and Abuse; Lifestyle; Marijuana; Smoking Behavior; Substance Abuse, Definition of; Tobacco Control)
— PATRICK M. O'MALLEY
