Monitoring the Future

is an ongoing study of the behaviors, attitudes, and values of Americans from adolescence through adulthood. Each year, a total of approximately 50,000 8th, 10th and 12th grade students are surveyed as part of the Main study (12th graders since 1975, and 8th and 10th graders since 1991). 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.

2022 Press Releases

Nicotine Vaping Now One of Top Forms of Substance Use Among Teens  Among 8th grade students, 7.1% vaped nicotine in the past 30 days in 2022, compared to 6.0% who used alcohol and 5.0% who used cannabis. Among 10th grade students, 14.2% vaped nicotine in the past 30 days, compared to 13.6% and 12.1% for alcohol and cannabis use, respectively. Among 12th grade students, the past 30-day prevalence of 20.7% for nicotine vaping was below alcohol use at 28.4% but similar to cannabis at 20.2%.

Marijuana, hallucinogen use at all-time high  Marijuana and hallucinogen use in the past year reported by young adults 19 to 30 years old increased significantly in 2021 compared to five and 10 years ago, reaching historic highs in this age group since 1988, according to the Monitoring the Future panel study. Rates of past-month nicotine vaping, which have been gradually increasing in young adults for the past four years, also continued their general upward trend in 2021, despite leveling off in 2020. Past-month marijuana vaping, which had significantly decreased in 2020, rebounded to pre-pandemic levels in 2021. Alcohol remains the most-used substance among adults in the study, though past-year, past-month and daily drinking have been decreasing over the past decade. Binge drinking (five or more drinks in a row in the past two weeks) rebounded in 2021 from a historic low in 2020, during the early stages of COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, high-intensity drinking (having 10 or more drinks in a row in the past two weeks) has been steadily increasing over the past decade and in 2021 reached its highest level ever recorded since first measured in 2005.