Life-style and drug involvement among youths in an inner city junior high school

Data gathered in a winter 1976 survey of youths attending a New York City junior high school were analyzed to learn how features of their life-styles related to their involvement with drugs. The results indicate that the youths' substance use is an environmentally related phenomenon. The factors of peer-held esteem of drug using, gang involved persons, friends' use of alcohol and marijuana, and participation in spare-time activities of a drug/street culture nature were found to provide important insights into the youths' drug taking.