Student responses concerning personal and peer use of marijuana were collected from 181 middle school students in rural Northern Michigan. Results suggest that personal marijuana use is highly correlated with peer consumption. Use of marijuana increases significantly with age and is higher than national averages in certain age groups. (Author/ABB)

It is important to study youth abusive drinking patterns because adolescent abusive drinking has been linked to several behavioral and sociological problems. Few studies, however, have examined early adolescent alcohol abuse or have addressed the problem of abusive drinking among rural area youth. A study was conducted to assess the extent to…

Among 3,907 seventh-twelfth grade students in rural Illinois, ages at first use for alcohol, tobacco, and drugs were lower than national averages. Specific drug and alcohol education programs should be implemented before age of first use for 10 percent of students. Contains 20 references and 3 data tables. (SV)

Investigated tobacco use from 1976-1992 among urban and rural adolescents using data from Monitoring the Future, a project that examines high school seniors' risk behaviors and sociodemographics annually. Results suggest rural white males smoke most often and urban black females smoke least often when compared to other groups. Smoking rates…

A study of patterns of health behavior among rural and small-town children surveyed 1,950 K-6 students from seven southern Illinois elementary schools. Findings indicate that less than half of the students ate the recommended amounts of fruits, vegetables, and grain each day. Males and females smoked at about the same rates, but sixth-grade boys…

The relationships among drug use, health beliefs, peer use, sex, and religion were examined using data collected from 265 seventh graders in rural northern Michigan and northeastern Wisconsin in January and February of 1984. Positive relationships were found between drug use and peer use and health beliefs. (TJH)