Social scientists can point with confidence to risk factors from childhood that predict drug use and deviance in adolescence. In general, the findings indicate that certain childhood personality traits, family experiences, and ecological factors strongly affect adolescent drug-using behavior.

A child who is irritable and easily distracted, who throws temper tantrums, fights often with siblings, and engages in predelinquent behavior is more likely than others to use drugs in adolescence. Other investigators have also found childhood AGGRESSION to be a most powerful predictor of adolescent drug use and deviance.

Poor childhood impulse control and a difficult temperament have been related to adolescent marijuana use. When problematic factors continue into adolescence, both the use of illicit drugs and the psychopharmacological effects of some drugs may then actually serve to exacerbate and enlarge the adolescent's feelings of irritability and aggressiveness...