Patrick O'malley

University of Michigan | U-M · Institute for Social Research

Background Little is known regarding what sociodemographic characteristics and reasons for use are associated with adolescent solitary alcohol and marijuana use. Methods Data from 7,845 12th grade students participating in the nationally-representative Monitoring the Future study from 2015-2021 were used to examine cross-sectional associations bet...

Changes in marijuana use

Purpose This study estimated self-reported perceived negative marijuana use consequences among a national sample of U.S. young adults, examining consequence prevalence differences by use frequency, college attendance, living situation, employment, sex, and race/ethnicity; and use frequency/sociodemographic characteristic interactions. Methods A su...

Objective: This study examined past-2-week driving after marijuana use (DMU) and driving after having five or more drinks (D5D) during young adulthood, specifically focusing on associations between within-person change in social roles (living situation, marriage, parenthood, education, employment) and mediators (perceived risk, evenings out, and r...

Background: How adolescent substance use and perceived availability of substances have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic remain largely unknown. Substantial reduction in availability of substances would present a unique opportunity to consider the supply-side hypothesis that reductions in drug availability will lead to reductions in drug preval...

Objective: This study examined age-related change in alcohol use, marijuana use, and the association between the two, from ages 18 to 55, in a national longitudinal sample. Method: Data were from national Monitoring the Future study participants (N = 11,888) who were high school seniors in 1976-1980 and were eligible to respond to the age 55 sur...

Recent reviews have highlighted adolescent solitary alcohol and marijuana use as risk indicators associated with negative consequences, coping motives, and negative affect¹,2; solitary use may reflect self-medication.¹,2 Adolescent solitary alcohol use is associated with health and academic problems,³ deviant behavior,³ and alcohol use disorder.⁴ D...

Importance US adolescent nicotine vaping increased at a record pace from 2017 to 2019, prompting new national policies to reduce access to flavors of vaping products preferred by youth. Objective To estimate prevalence, perceived harm, and accessibility of nicotine vaping products among US adolescents from 2017 to 2020. Design, Setting, and Parti...

Given the promise of the web push plus e-mail survey design for providing cost-effective and high-quality data (Patrick et al. 2018, 2019) as an alternative to a paper-and-pencil mailed survey design for the longitudinal Monitoring the Future (MTF) study, the current study sought to further enhance the web push condition. The MTF sample is based on...

Objective: This study estimated the percentage of age 35 and 55 adults reporting using medical marijuana intended for someone else (diverted use) and compared demographics and health status of such users with respondents reporting recommended use (i.e., individuals with a medical marijuana recommendation for their own health conditions) and to res...

This study (a) examined changes in marijuana and cigarette initiation sequencing and (b) considered implications of such changes for prevention efforts by examining associations between initiation sequencing and current adolescent substance use. Analyses used 2000–2019 cross-sectional data from the national Monitoring the Future (MTF) study (78,252...

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/null/1/2019 Demographic Subgroups Final.pdf

Background More United States adolescents now report high-frequency marijuana use than similar use levels of alcohol or tobacco. Increased high-frequency use raises questions such as (a) is frequent use likelihood growing among adolescents who experiment with use? (b) Is such change observed equally across sex and racial/ethnic subgroups? (c) Have...

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/null/1/Vol 1 2019 FINAL (original).pdf

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/null/1/mtf-occ94.pdf

Objective Adolescent cigarette smoking declined steadily and substantially from 2000 to 2018. This paper considers the potential consequences of this ‘great decline’ for the prevalence of other drug use among adolescents. Methods Data are annual, cross-sectional, nationally representative Monitoring the Future surveys of more than 1.2 million US s...

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/null/1/FINAL.pdf

Adolescents who vape use portable devices with a heating element to aerosolize a liquid that they inhale. Nicotine use is most common, but tetrahydrocannabinol (the principal psychoactive constituent of marijuana) can also be vaped. Marijuana vaping produces significantly greater physiological and psychological effects compared with traditional smo...

Adolescent e-cigarette use has increased substantially since 2016.¹ To counteract such trends, public health agencies are considering regulatory restrictions of e-cigarettes in flavors popular among youths.²,3 Whether certain flavors warrant inclusion or exemption from regulatory policies is unclear because recent estimates of the specific e-cigare...

Background Mental health problems and mental health related mortality have increased among adolescents, particularly girls. These trends have implications for etiology and prevention and suggest new and emerging risk factors in need of attention. The present study estimated age, period, and cohort effects in depressive symptoms among US nationally...

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/150623/1/2018-19 VOL II FINAL 2.pdf

This study examines the two-year follow up (data collected in 2016 at modal age 21/22) of an original mixed-mode longitudinal survey experiment (data collected at modal age 19/20 in 2014). The study compares participant retention in the experimental conditions to retention in the standard Monitoring the Future (MTF) control condition (participants...

Introduction: This study presents the first nationally-representative estimates of adolescent nicotine prevalence that take into account adolescent reports of substances vaped. These reports allow nicotine estimates that consider the impact of the newly-emerged group of adolescents who report vaping only non-nicotine substances such as flavoring a...

Aims: In the last decade the relatively lower levels of marijuana use for black relative to non-black high school seniors has grown smaller and disappeared, drawing to a close a unique disparity that actually favored a disadvantaged group for at least thirty years. In this study we test trends in cigarette smoking and religiosity as possible expla...

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/150622/1/Vol 1 2018 FINAL3.pdf

Background This study examined the extent to which the developmental pattern of prevalence of binge drinking in the past 2 weeks from ages 18 through 30 has changed across 29 cohorts of U.S. young adults, and whether the changes differed by gender. Methods Analyses used national longitudinal data from 58,019 12th‐grade students (from graduating hi...

Background and Aims Long‐term frequent marijuana use is associated with significant negative outcomes, yet little is known about the longitudinal course of marijuana use among those who start frequent use during adolescence. Objectives are (a) to identify latent patterns of within‐person marijuana use from ages 19‐30 among 12th graders reporting fr...

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/150621/1/Overview 2018 FINAL print 2-25.pdf

A national survey revealed a large increase in nicotine vaping among high school students; more than 20% of 12th-graders reported that they vaped nicotine in 2018. The increase in adolescent nicotine use from 2017 to 2018 was explained by an increase in vaping; the use of other nicotine products declined.

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/null/1/2020 FINAL FINAL.pdf

Background: This study examines the extent to which the developmental pattern of frequent marijuana use prevalence from ages 18 to 30 (overall and by gender) has varied across historical time (cohort groups) using data from a national sample of US young adults. Methods: Self-reported data on frequent marijuana use (use on 20+ occasions in the pa...

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/null/1/2019-20 VOL II FINAL 3.pdf

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137821/1/mtf-vol1_1993.pdf

The national Monitoring the Future (MTF) study examines substance use among adolescents and adults in the United States and has used paper questionnaires since it began in 1975. The current experiment tested three conditions as compared to the standard MTF follow-up protocol (i.e., MTF Control) for the first MTF follow-up survey at ages 19/20 years...

The opioid crisis has become far more serious than some of the other epidemics the country has faced. This collection of timely AAP journal articles, blog posts, and policy explores the risks and possible solutions. https://shop.aap.org/pediatric-collections-opioid-epidemic-paperback/

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142406/1/Overview 2017 FINAL.pdf

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154711/1/Terry-McElrath Patrick O'Malley 2018.pdf

Introduction: Vaping has recently increased in popularity among adolescents. Little is known about heterogeneity of vapers, particularly in terms of why they vape. Identifying major subgroups of adolescent vapers by reasons for vaping is important to understand adolescent vaping behavior and to identify those most at risk for other substance use....

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139709/1/mtf-hiv-aids_2016.pdf

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine driving-related consequences associated with levels of drinking intensity among a national sample of young adult drinkers. Methods Data come from a nationally representative sample of 12th graders sampled annually in 2005–2014 with subsamples surveyed at age 19/20 years. Multivariable logistic regres...

While arrest rates for juvenile offenses have substantially decreased since the 1990s, U.S. national trends in conduct problems are unknown. Population variation in conduct problems would imply changes in the social environment, including emergent or receding risk factors. The present study separated age, period, and cohort effects in conduct probl...

Background: This study examined changes during the past decade, from 2005 to 2015, in binge and high-intensity drinking in 7 separate age groups of U.S. 12th graders and young adults. Methods: National longitudinal data (N = 6,711) from Monitoring the Future were used to examine trends in consuming 5+, 10+, and 15+ drinks on the same occasion in...

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139711/1/mtf-vol1_2016.pdf

Background: Perceived risk of harm has long been a key preventive factor for adolescent marijuana use. However, in recent years, perceived risk has decreased markedly and marijuana use has increased only slightly, leading to new questions about their association. This study investigates the magnitude and stability of the US adolescent marijuana ri...

Objectives: To examine a potential increase in marijuana initiation among US college students as compared with their age peers not in college before and after 2013, a watershed year for increasing tolerance of marijuana use in the United States. Methods: Data come from the Monitoring the Future study, which has followed longitudinal panels drawn...

Introduction: Effective cigarette smoking prevention and intervention programming is enhanced by accurate understanding of developmental smoking pathways across the lifespan. This study investigated within-person patterns of cigarette smoking from age 18-50 among a U.S. national sample of high school graduates, focusing on identifying ages of part...

Objective: To prospectively examine vaping as a predictor of future cigarette smoking among youth with and without previous cigarette smoking experience. A secondary aim is to investigate whether vaping may desensitise youth to the dangers of smoking. Methods: Analysis of prospective longitudinal panel data from the nationally representative Mon...

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139712/1/mtf-overview2016.pdf

Objective To examine what substances US youth vape. Methods Data come from Monitoring the Future, an annual, nationally representative survey of USA 12th-grade, 10th-grade and 8th-grade students. Respondents reported what substance they vaped the last time they used a vaporiser such as an e-cigarette. Results Among students who had ever used a va...

Aims: To test, among US students: (1) whether perceived harmfulness of marijuana has changed over time, (2) whether perceived harmfulness of marijuana changed post-passage of state medical marijuana laws (MML) compared with pre-passage; and (3) whether perceived harmfulness of marijuana statistically mediates and/or modifies the relation between M...

Objective: The study describes the most common reasons for using vaporizers (such as e-cigarettes) among US adolescents and investigates how reasons for use differ by grade, lifetime cigarette use, frequency of vaporizer use, gender, race/ethnicity, and parent education. Method: Data were collected from 4066 students in the 8th, 10th, and 12th g...

Background: Effective policies that can reduce alcohol use behaviors and impaired driving among young people at a population level are needed. Graduated driver licensing (GDL) laws increase the driving privileges of young novice drivers as they age and gain more driving experience. In this study, we seek to determine the effects of GDLs on risky d...

Objectives: To examine associations between sleep and alcohol, amphetamine, cigarette, marijuana, and non-heroin narcotic use among US middle and high school students, trends in associations over time, and the comparative impact of select covariates on association strength. Methods: Data from the 1991-2014 nationally representative Monitoring th...

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137886/1/mtf-occ84.pdf

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137909/1/mtf-overview2015.pdf

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137905/1/mtf-hiv-aids_2015.pdf

Introduction and aims: The current study documents the characteristics associated with the use of two novel psychoactive substances: synthetic cannabinoids and synthetic cathinones. Design and methods: Nationally representative samples of students in 8th (n = 9665), 10th (n = 10 655) and 12th (n = 10 057) grades across the US were included in th...

This Handbook explores the origins, development, and course of substance use as it emerges and unfolds in adolescence. Given the large causal network involved in adolescent substance use and abuse as well as its powerful impact, both at the time of use and in terms of the long term outcomes and complications of use, the domains covered by this volu...

Background and objective: Legitimate opioid use is associated with an increased risk of long-term opioid use and possibly misuse in adults. The objective of this study was to estimate the risk of future opioid misuse among adolescents who have not yet graduated from high school. Methods: Prospective, panel data come from the Monitoring the Futur...

Introduction: This study examines the role of e-cigarettes in the drug use patterns of adolescents. Of specific interest is whether adolescent e-cigarette users fall into a group of (a) youth who do not use traditional drugs of abuse or (b) polysubstance users. Methods: Using latent class analysis, we identify major "classes" of substance users...

The purpose of this study was to assess whether infrequent and frequent marijuana use at age 19/20 years predicts receipt of educational degrees by the mid-20s, independent of confounding age 18 adolescent risk factors. Data were from the Monitoring the Future study, an annual nationally representative survey of high school seniors followed into ad...

To present data on trends in foods and beverages offered through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) in public middle and high schools in the years immediately preceding and following implementation of new NSLP standards. From 2011-2013, primary data collection through the annual Youth, Education, and Society study involved use of mailed quest...

The IOM recommends schools adopt a Whole-of-School (WOS) approach-one that is comprehensive, coordinated, and provides opportunities for students to be active before, during, and after school. This study examined, in a nationally representative sample of secondary students in the conterminous U.S., (1) the degree of implementation of a WOS approach...

Preference for risky activities is an important developmentally graded predictor of substance use. Population-level trends in adolescent risk preference, as well as the way in which risk preference may be a conduit to risk behavior, have never been documented. The present study examines population-level trends in risk preference among U.S. high sch...

Background: Adolescent use of marijuana is associated with adverse later effects, so the identification of factors underlying adolescent use is of substantial public health importance. The relationship between US state laws that permit marijuana for medical purposes and adolescent marijuana use has been controversial. Such laws could convey a mess...

To measure changes over time in cigarette smoking uptake prevalence and timing during young adulthood (ages 19-26), and associations between time-invariant/-varying characteristics and uptake prevalence/timing. Discrete-time survival modeling of data collected from United States high school seniors (modal age 17/18) enrolled in successive graduatin...

Beginning in the 2014-2015 school year, all U.S. schools participating in federally reimbursable meal programs are required to implement new nutrition standards for items sold in competitive venues. Multilevel mediation modeling examining direct, mediated, and indirect pathways between policy, availability, and student consumption might provide ins...

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137897/1/mtf-occ83.pdf

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137912/1/mtf-vol1_2014.pdf

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137910/1/mtf-hiv-aids_2014.pdf

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/170919/1/mtf-occ82.pdf

Background: Obesity is a multi-faceted problem requiring solutions from multiple sectors of influence, including land use/zoning. Recent research documented that adolescent obesity is lower in more walkable communities. A key factor influencing community walkability is how the community is designed/zoned to support physical activity (PA). This pres...

Importance The latest US Department of Agriculture school meal and competitive venue standards (USDA standards) aim to improve student nutrition and health. However, significant opposition has been raised to their implementation.Objective To examine (1) the percentages of US middle and high school students who currently attend schools that have s...

BACKGROUND Research on physical activity breaks and facilities (indoor and outdoor) in secondary schools is relatively limited.METHODS School administrators and students in nationally representative samples of 8th (middle school) and 10th/12th grade (high school) students were surveyed annually from 2008-2009 to 2011-2012. School administrators rep...

Background: The 2013-2014 school year involved preparation for implementing the new US Department of Agriculture (USDA) competitive foods nutrition standards. An awareness of associations between commercial supplier involvement, food vending practices, and food vending item availability may assist schools in preparing for the new standards. Metho...

Background: No national studies have examined associations between (1) school food availability and accessibility and (2) secondary student fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption. This article uses 5 years of nationally representative data from secondary school students to examine associations between the school food environment and student fruit an...

Objective: This article examines noncausal associations between high school seniors' alcohol and marijuana use status and rates of self-reported unsafe driving in the past 12 months. Method: Analyses used data from 72,053 students collected through annual surveys of nationally representative cross-sectional samples of U.S. 12th-grade students fr...

Objective: This article reviews changes in drinking patterns in the general U.S. population since the first appearance of the Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol in June 1940. Method: Contents of the three iterations of the journal (Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Journal of Studies on Alcohol, and Journal of Studies on Alcohol and...

We appreciate Acheampong et al.'s interest in and commendation of our article. The sample size for the data presented in Table 1 is provided in a note that says the number of respondents was approximately 2000 per year. Although this does not provide a precise number, it seems to us sufficiently informative for readers and reviewers. Tables 2 and 3...

Examine energy drink/shot and regular and diet soft drink use among United States secondary school students in 2010-2011, and associations between such use and substance use. We used self-reported data from cross-sectional surveys of nationally representative samples of 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade students and conducted multivariate analyses examin...

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137914/1/mtf-hiv-aids_2013.pdf

Background: Beverages high in sugars and fats are widely available in US secondary schools despite voluntary beverage industry guidelines to limit availability. This paper reports associations between state laws banning such beverages in schools and their availability in secondary schools. Methods: State laws governing school beverage sales were...

BACKGROUND. This analysis investigated associations between self-reported overlapping alcohol and marijuana use (OAM) and tickets/warnings and accidents among high school seniors. METHODS. From 1976-2011, annual surveys of nationally representative cross-sectional samples of 12th grade students in the coterminous US collected data via in-school que...

Importance: The prevalence of underage alcohol use has been studied extensively, but binge drinking among youth in the United States is not yet well understood. In particular, adolescents may drink much larger amounts than the threshold (5 drinks) often used in definitions of binge drinking. Delineating various levels of binge drinking, including...

Objectives: We examined prevalence, trends, and correlates of driving or riding after use of drugs or alcohol among US high school seniors from 2001 to 2011. Methods: Data come from Monitoring the Future, an annual survey of nationally representative samples of high school seniors. We used logistic regressions with data from more than 22,000 res...

To examine nonmedical use of prescription opioids (NMUPO) patterns during the transition from adolescence to adulthood, and assess individual characteristics and other substance use behaviors associated with longitudinal patterns of NMUPO. Nationally representative samples of high school seniors in the United States (wave 1: modal age 18 years) wer...

This report is the tenth in an annual series reporting the drug use and related attitudes of America's high school seniors. The findings, which cover the high school classes of 1975 through 1986, come from an ongoing national research and reporting program entitled Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of the Lifestyles and Values of Youth. T...

Since 2006-2007, education agencies (e.g., school districts) participating in U.S. federal meal programs are required to have wellness policies. To date, this is the only federal policy that addresses foods and beverages sold outside of school meals (in competitive venues). To examine the extent to which federally required components of school well...