Demographic Subgroup Trends among Adolescents in the Use of Various Licit and Illicit Drugs, 1975-2016. Monitoring the Future Occasional Paper Series. Paper 88

This occasional paper presents national demographic subgroup data for the 1975-2016 Monitoring the Future (MTF) national survey results on 8th , 10th, and 12th graders' use of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. MTF is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health under a series of investigator-initiated, competitive research grants to the University of Michigan. The study covers all major classes of illicit and licit psychoactive drugs for an array of population subgroups. The 2016 subgroup data presented here accompany the "Monitoring the Future National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975-2016: Overview, Key Findings on Adolescent Drug Use" (ED578534) and the "Monitoring the Future National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975-2016: Volume I, Secondary School Students" (ED578730). The trends offered here in tabular and graphic forms cover demographic subgroups based on: (1) Gender; (2) College plans; (3) Region of the country; (4) Population density; (5) Education level of the parents (a proxy for socioeconomic level); and (6) Racial/ethnic identification. Detailed descriptions of the demographic categories are provided in the section starting on page 367 of this paper. The graphs and tables in this occasional paper present trend data for 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade respondents separately. Data for 12th grade begins with 1975, the first year in which a nationally representative sample of high school seniors was surveyed. Data for 8th and 10th grades begin with 1991, when the study's nationally representative annual surveys were expanded to include those lower grade levels.