Early Adolescent Antecedents of Narcotic Abuse

Abstract

A retrospective study of the sociocultural and behavioral characteristics of 200 persons under treatment for narcotic addiction was conducted and compared with those of 200 matched nonaddict peers. Of the original 104 items tested, 28 discriminated between the 2 samples at the 5% level of significance. A factor analysis of these items indicated that a general delinquency behavior factor and 3 family background factors accounted for most of the variance in the data.