Polar Types of Reported Drug Involvement Among Israeli Youth

Abstract

The predisposing factors linked to drug involvement may be different for various types of youth, although the outcome is the same. In this sense a bimodal curve of drug involvement would indicate 2 types of highly involved youth: those from high social status families where low parental control implies a tendency to seek involvement with their peers and solve their personal adjustment problems within the peer group, and those from the lower social strata for whom low parental control also implies association with outside peer groups as an alternative to shaky and diffuse families and lack of involvement in school life. This study on the cannabis involvement of 776 boys and girls (aged 14-18 yr), drawn from 8 schools, is an attempt to identify and describe these polar types of drug-involved youth in more detail.