Self-Reported Reasons for Abstinence from Illicit Drugs

To provide a more balanced understanding of the initiation and restraint of substance use, educators, clinicians, and researchers would benefit from a review of research assessing the reasons nonusers report for having abstained from drugs.

Based on searches of computerized databases and the reference sections of relevant articles, we identified 15 relevant studies that assessed and quantified participants' expressed reasons for having abstained from (a) one or more named substances or (b) drugs (or alcohol and drugs) with little or no further specification. We defined as more salient those 25% of reasons in each study that were endorsed most frequently, ranked highest, or rated most influential.

Five reasons - concerns about physical health, lack of interest, harmful psychological consequences, personal beliefs/morals, and peer/family disapproval - were most frequently identified as salient across studies and substances.

These salient reasons are consistent with outcome expectancy and social learning models that have been proposed to explain drug initiation. To enhance the value of future research, we recommend testing whether importance ratings differ across contexts; repeatedly assessing within-subject variability of reasons across time; evaluating the association of psychological characteristics with reasons for abstaining; and continuing to evaluate which reasons for abstaining vary by type of drug, gender, ethnicity, and religiosity. We also recommend additional research comparing which reasons predict continued abstinence and which predict initiation of use during follow-up.