Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Jun;34(5):667-680.
doi: 10.1177/0272431613501409. Epub 2013 Sep 9.

Trends in Substance Use Among 6th- to 10th-Grade Students From 1998 to 2010: Findings From a National Probability Study

Ashley Brooks-Russell  1 , Tilda Farhat  1 , Denise Haynie  1 , Bruce Simons-Morton  1
Affiliations

Trends in Substance Use Among 6th- to 10th-Grade Students From 1998 to 2010: Findings From a National Probability Study

Ashley Brooks-Russell et al. J Early Adolesc. 2014 Jun.

Abstract

Of the handful of national studies tracking trends in adolescent substance use in the United States, only the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC) study collects data from 6th through 10th graders. The purpose of this study was to examine trends from 1998 to 2010 (four time points) in the prevalence of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use among 6th through 10th graders. Differences in trends by grade, gender, and race/ethnicity were examined for each substance use behavior, with a primary focus on trends for sixth and seventh graders. Overall, there were significant declines in tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use from 1998 to 2010. The declines were largest for the younger grades, which suggest promise for future declines among high school students as these cohorts age into high school.

Keywords: adolescent alcohol use; adolescent tobacco use; national prevalence of substance use; substance use trends.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Trends in substance use for 6th through 10th grade from 1998 to 2010. Note. Error bars represent the 95% confidence intervals for prevalence rates. Past year marijuana use was not assessed for sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students in 2002.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Anderson P, Baumberg B. Alcohol in Europe: A public health perspective. London, England: Institute of Alcohol Studies; 2006.
    1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Youth risk behavior surveillance: United States. Atlanta, GA: Office of Surveillance, Epidemiology and Laboratory Services; 2011. Rep. No. 61 [No. 4]
    1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Trends in the Prevalence of Alcohol Use, National YRBS: 1991–2011 [On-line] 2012a Retrieved August 23, 2013, from http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/yrbs/pdf/us_alcohol_trend_yrbs.pdf.
    1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Trends in the Prevalence of Marijuana, Cocaine, and Other Illegal Drug Use, National YRBS: 1991–2011 [On-line] 2012b Retrieved August 23, 2013, from http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/yrbs/pdf/us_drug_trend_yrbs.pdf.
    1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Trends in the Prevalence of Tobacco Use, National YRBS: 1991–2011 [On-line] 2012c Retrieved August 23, 2013, from http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/yrbs/pdf/us_tobacco_trend_yrbs.pdf.

LinkOut - more resources