Monitoring the Future

is an ongoing study of the behaviors, attitudes, and values of Americans from adolescence through adulthood. Each year, more than 25,000 8th, 10th and 12th grade students are surveyed as part of the MTF Main study (12th graders since 1975, and 8th and 10th graders since 1991) and approximately 20,000 adults ages 19 to 65 are surveyed as part of the MTF Panel study. The Monitoring the Future Panel study conducts annual follow up surveys with a subsample of each graduating class, who complete a follow up every two years from ages 19–30 and every five years from age 35 onward. The Monitoring the Future Study has been funded under a series of investigator-initiated competing research grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a part of the National Institutes of Health. MTF is conducted at the Survey Research Center in the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan.
 

 

For additional information regarding the Monitoring the Future study, please e-mail us.

2024 Press Releases

Missing rebound: Youth drug use defies expectations, continues historic decline. Adolescent drug use continued to drop in 2024, building on and extending the historically large decreases that occurred during the pandemic onset in 2020.

Boredom, relaxation and experimentation are among top reasons teens vape. Nicotine vapes are sometimes marketed as aids for cigarette smoking cessation. However, teens do not typically turn to electronic nicotine vapes to curb smoking habits, according to University of Michigan research. The study, “Reasons for Vaping Among U.S. Adolescents,” published in Pediatrics (online Nov. 12), examined data from in-school surveys of U.S. students in eighth, 10th and 12th grades, revealing a mix of curiosity, boredom and stress relief as key drivers.

Cannabis, hallucinogen use among adults still at historic highs. The percentages of adults using cannabis and hallucinogens over the past year stayed at historically high levels in 2023, according to the latest findings from the University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future survey.

Delta-8-THC use reported by 11% of 12th graders. The first ever national estimates of teen delta-8 use indicate that 11% of 12th grade students across the United States used it in the past year. This information comes from the Monitoring the Future study, which annually surveys adolescents across the U.S. and is conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan and funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.