Research into expressions of attitudes about drugs--what use is it?

The authors draw attention to an assumption often implicit in presentation and utilisation of attitude data, that attitudes are the cause of behaviour. They then present attitude data collected from English schoolchildren with various levels of familiarity with drugs--these data could be interpreted in many ways and are compatible with the hypothesis that pupils' social experiences and behaviour may precede and influence their attitudes. It is suggested that the concept of the "transitional process" between socially available roles may be useful to researchers, evaluators and programme planners.