Appendix A.4. National Institute on Drug Abuse

Monitoring the Future Survey

The National Institute on Drug Abuse of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is the primary supporter of the long-term study titled "Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of American Youth," conducted by the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research. One component of the study deals with student drug abuse. Results of the national sample survey have been published annually since 1975. With the exception of 1975, when about 9,400 students participated in the survey, the annual samples comprise roughly 16,000 students in 150 public and private schools. Students complete self-administered questionnaires given to them in their classrooms by University of Michigan personnel. Each year, 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-graders are surveyed (12th-graders since 1975, and 8th- and 10th-graders since 1991). The 8th- and 10th-grade surveys are anonymous, while the 12th-grade survey is confidential. The 10th-grade samples involve about 17,000 students in 140 schools each year, while the 8th-grade samples have approximately 18,000 students in about 150 schools. In all, approximately 50,000 students from about 420 public and private secondary schools are surveyed annually. Approximately 88.4 percent of 8th-grade students, 87.2 percent of 10th-grade students, and 84.7 percent of 12th-grade students surveyed participated in the study in 2010. Beginning with the class of 1976, a randomly selected sample from each senior class has been followed in the years after high school on a continuing basis.

Understandably, there is some reluctance to admit illegal activities. Also, students who are out of school on the day of the survey are nonrespondents, and the survey does not include high school dropouts. The inclusion of absentees and dropouts would tend to increase the proportion of individuals who had used drugs. A 1983 study found that the inclusion of absentees could increase some of the drug usage estimates by as much as 2.7 percentage points. (Details on that study and its methodology were published in Drug Use Among American High School Students, College Students, and Other Young Adults, by L.D. Johnston, P.M. O'Malley, and J.G. Bachman, available from the National Clearinghouse on Drug Abuse Information, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20857.)

The 2014 Monitoring the Future survey encompassed about 41,600 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade students in 377 secondary schools nationwide. The first published results were presented in Monitoring the Future, National Results on Drug Use, 1975–2014: Overview, Key Findings on Adolescent Drug Use, at http://www.monitoringthefuture.org//pubs/monographs/mtf-overview2014.pdf.

Further information on the Monitoring the Future drug abuse survey may be obtained from

National Institute on Drug Abuse
Division of Epidemiology, Services and
Prevention Research (DESPR)
6001 Executive Boulevard
Bethesda, MD 20892
mtfinformation@umich.edu
http://www.monitoringthefuture.org