Home and Family Correlates of Prior Drug Involvement Among Institutionalized Male Adolescents

The literature concerning drug abuse in adolescence has indicated that various aspects of the home and family background of a boy or girl may be important correlates of drug usage. Such correlates show differences in terms of form of measurement, specificity, and reliability. The present study is focused on a particular facet of this problem, namely prior drug abuse among a group of institutionalized Training School boys. Within this context it was hoped to obtain not only a broad spectrum of home and family variables but also, if feasible, global dimensions of this aspect of an adolescent's environment. All data come from case records.