Monitoring the Future Releases 2007 Data for Adolescent Substance Abuse

Eighth, 10th, and 12th graders across the country are continuing to show a gradual decline in the proportions reporting use of illicit drugs, according to the 33rd national survey in the Monitoring the Future (MTF) series.

Trends in Alcohol Abuse

The abuse of alcohol by teens has declined since the mid-1990s. The 30-day prevalence of alcohol use (reporting drinking an alcoholic beverage at least once in the 30 days prior to the survey) has fallen by 40 percent among 8th graders since its peak level in 1996.

The proportional declines since recent peak rates were smaller for the older students, however: about a one-fifth decline for 10th graders and about one-sixth for 12th graders. All three grades showed small declines in use in 2007—none reaching statistical significance. Thirty-day prevalence of alcohol use was found to be 16 percent, 33 percent, and 44 percent for grades 8, 10, and 12, respectively.

The greater decline in use among 8th graders may reflect the greater decline in their reported availability of alcohol. While there was some decline in reported availability among the upper grades, the 8th graders showed the greatest decline. In 1996, 75 percent thought that they could obtain alcohol if they wanted some, whereas by 2007 the number had fallen to 62 percent.

The proportions reporting being drunk in the prior 30 days was 5.5 percent in the 2007 survey, down by more than four-tenths from what it was in 1996 (9.6 percent). The proportional declines were much smaller for the older students, with 18 percent of the 10th graders admitting to drunkenness within the month, down almost one-quarter from their recent peak rate, and 29 percent of 12th graders admitting drunkenness, down only about one-sixth from their peak rate in 1997.

Trends in Illicit Drug Abuse

The proportion of 8th graders reporting use of an illicit drug at least once in the 12 months prior to the survey was 24 percent in 1996 but has fallen to 13 percent by 2007, a drop of nearly half. The decline has been less among 10th graders, from 39 percent to 28 percent between 1997 and 2007, and least among 12th graders, a decline from the recent peak of 42 percent in 1997 to 36 percent in 2007.

The drugs most responsible for the modest decline in illicit drug use were marijuana and various stimulant drugs, including amphetamines, Ritalin (a specific amphetamine), methamphetamine, and crystal methamphetamine.

The only drug showing signs of an increase in use was MDMA (ecstasy). Ecstasy use among teens plummeted in the early 2000s as concern about the consequences of use grew; however, the proportion of students seeing great risk in using this drug has been in decline for the past two or three years at all three grade levels, and use has begun to increase in the upper grades.

MTF has been funded under a series of competing, investigator-initiated research grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). MTF is conducted at the Survey Research Center in the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan.

The findings summarized here are published in: Johnston, L. D., O'Malley, P. M., Bachman, J. G. & Schulenberg, J. E. (December 11, 2007). Overall, illicit drug use by American teens continues gradual decline in 2007. University of Michigan News Service: Ann Arbor, MI. [Online]. Available: www.monitoringthefuture.org; accessed 01/22/08.

For more information, visit the Monitoring the Future Web site to access the data.