Methodological and Substantive Issues Involved in Using the Concept of Risk in Research into the Etiology of Drug Use among Adolescents

The present paper reviews the various sets of variables that have been found to relate to youths' drug use. It considers various experiences, deriving from our accumulated knowledge, which need to be incorporated into research into the etiology of drug use, and discusses methodological strategies and models of analysis which show promise of improving the state of the art in this field. Documentation is provided concerning the usefulness of screening subsets of cases on relevant risk variables prior to data analysis.