EARLY AGGRESSION LINKED TO TEEN DRUGS

Aggressive children are more likely to become drug users during adolescence
than other children, a study has found.

The study of 1380 Victorian children showed marked differences between the
characteristics of young drug users and non-users.

It found 15 to 16-year-old drug users were more gregarious, had difficulty
controlling their emotions and were less likely to be involved in sport or
other organised activities.

They associated with peers involved in delinquent activities, had poorer
quality friendships, were less attached to their families and were more
likely to suffer from depression than non-drug users of the same age.

Their parents were more likely to be smokers and drinkers. Users tended to
be late-born children rather than first-born. They also had less
satisfactory relationships with teachers and school.

The findings are part of the Australian Temperament Project, a study
tracking the lives of Victorian children born in 1983 from infancy to 17
years of age.

One of the study's authors, Dr Ann Sanson, a principal research fellow at
the Australian Institute of Family Studies, said a child's ability to learn
how to calm down when feeling upset was crucial in helping to protect them
from drug-taking or other delinquent behavior.

"The task of learning to self-regulate their emotions is more difficult and
more crucial for kids who are more intense, irritable or highly strung," she
said. "How kids learn to regulate these characteristics is very important."

Girls involved in delinquent behavior were particularly at risk of becoming
drug users. Dr Sanson said she was surprised by the finding about girls.
More research was needed to discover why they were at higher risk of
becoming drug users.

The study cast doubt on the popular theory that early marijuana use
inevitably led to the use of harder drugs such as heroin and amphetamines.
It found marijuana use by 13 to 14-year-olds seemed to be experimental and
was often abandoned by the time they reached 15-16.

But early marijuana users were more likely to go on to hard drugs when they
turned 15 than those who did not use it. However, their numbers were small:
only 10 per cent of 13 to 14-year-old marijuana users were taking hard drugs
when they turned 15.

The study also uncovered warning signs among infants and toddlers that
predicted an increased risk of using hard drugs in later life.

Teenagers who became hard drug users had, as infants, less regular sleeping
and eating habits than non-drug users. When they were toddlers they tended
to be less persistent with activities, less cooperative with everyday
routines such as dressing, and more active.

From the age of five they were more aggressive than their counterparts who
grew up to be non-drug users. During primary school they had poorer quality
relationships with their peers, their behavior was more inflexible and they
were less anxious and fearful than their peers.