The types of friendships adolescents have often reflect their childhood relationships and predict how they do in the future. In a new study, researchers found that antisocial teenagers’ friendships tend to involve less listening, eye contact, and responsiveness, and that these teens spend more time talking about deviant topics such as substance abuse and breaking the law.

Thousands of young Australians dealing with the dual problems of substance abuse and mental illness may be being denied help. A conference in Melbourne has heard that many services are not handling the joint issues properly and are simply passing young, vulnerable clients on to other services.

In one of the first studies to focus on the relationship between racial discrimination and health risk behaviors, researchers at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health with colleagues from the Universities of Minnesota, Alabama (Birmingham), and California (San Francisco), and Harvard University found African Americans experiencing racial discrimination were more likely to report current tobacco use or recent alcohol consumption and lifetime use of marijuana and cocaine.

Substance abuse increases among recent Hispanic immigrants as they replace their traditional cultural beliefs with those of white Americans, according to new research presented today by Oregon State University assistant professor Scott Akins at the American Sociological Association’s Annual Meeting in New York.

Improving the institutional culture (ethos) of schools in the UK may help reduce substance abuse and teenage pregnancies, says an article in this week's BMJ.