R e l i a b i l i t y and v a l i d i t y are basic issues in any type of research and are especia l ly important to the study of the a t t i tudes , motivations and behaviors of adolescents in areas such as alcohol use, drug use and deviant behavior. The fundamental issues of r e l i a b i l i t y and v a l i d i t y may be more d i f f i c u l t to examine in studies of adolescents. The usual problems of reca l l , recognit ion and report ing could be compounded by a number of factors more charac ter is t i c of adolescent than adult experience such as peer pressure, rap id ly changing a t t i tudes, maturation, exposure to new experiences and parental sanctions. The subject area of reports, the context in which the reports were obtained and the point of the respondent in the developmental process are some of the confounding issues that might a f fec t in terpretat ions of the r e l i a b i l i t y and v a l i d i t y of the data. Despite these problems, evidence of r e l i a b i l i t y and v a l i d i t y is avai lable. In studies of drug use among high school students, Haberman et al. (1972) found adequate levels of internal consistency. Mayer and Fi lstead (1979) found high tes t re tes t r e l i a b i l i t i e s of a measure of alcohol involvement for adolescents. Johnston (1973) reports that the drug use questions in his survey of high school students had a nonresponse rate of less than two percent, even though respondents were spec i f i ca l l y instructed not to answer questions that made them uncomfortable or would force them to misrepresent themselves to the in te r viewer. Length of recal l also has been found to a f fec t reports of prevalence (Uppal, Babst, and Schmeidler, (1977). Although the use of construct va l ida t ion procedures in alcohol research among high school students has been l imi ted. Kandel (1975), Jessor and Jessor (1978) and Johnston (1973) argue that the patterns of re lat ionships among alcohol and drug use and other behaviors are consistent with current theories of substance abuse. Attempts have been made to compare se l f repor ted use with perceptions of f r iends' use. In one study 63 percent of adolescents whose best fr iends were drug users reported drug use compared to 22 percent of those whose best fr iends were nonusers (Single, Kandel, and Johnson, 1975). Users have been found to d i f f e r from non-users on a number of variables not d i r ec t l y connected to drug use including absenteeism (Single, Kandel, and Johnson, 1975), poor school performance, de l inquency, and countercul tural l i f e s t y l e (Johnston, 1974). No studies have attempted to ve r i f y reports of adolescent alcohol use with chemical tests , record searches or proxy reports. This paper discusses the examination of the v a l i d i t y and r e l i a b i l i t y of the data in the 1974 and 1978 surveys of adolescent dr inking conducted by RTI and the construct v a l i d i t y of indices of alcohol use and misuse developed for the study. The context for th is discussion involves the potent ia l problems in obtaining re l i ab le , va l id and useful data from adolescents concerning behaviors usually considered deviant by society.

Drug-abuse treatment may have important direct and indirect effects on restricting the spread of infection with human immunodeficiency virus by decreasing the prevalence of intravenous drug use and by decreasing regular drug use that impairs the immune system. Drug-abuse treatment results in substantial declines in the use of heroin, cocaine, prescription psychotherapeutic drugs, and other drugs in the year after treatment. Declines are closely related to the length of time spent in treatment; treatment duration of greater than or equal to 6 months has a significant impact on drug use after treatment. The potential impact of drug-abuse treatment in combatting the AIDS epidemic is discussed.

: This report describes the results of the 1986 Youth Attitude Tracking Study Ii conducted by the Research Triangle Institute. This report examines enlistment propensity, economic factors affecting propensity, economic factors affecting propensity, intentions and attitudes towards the military, enlistment incentives, advertising exposure and Service images, and information-seeking and recruiter contact. In addition to the descriptive tabulations, other analyses that simultaneously examine a set of variables for young males and young females are presented. 1985 and 1986 estimates of positive propensity to serve in the active military and Reserve components are presented in a table format. Only three statistically significant changes in propensity levels between 1985 and 1986 were found. Young females showed an increase in propensity toward serving in the Air Force and young males were more likely to express and unaided interest in 1986 compared to 1985.

: Effective targeting of recruiting efforts requires that the Department of Defense understands the backgrounds, attitudes and motivations of young men and women, and their intentions to serve in the military. In the past, two survey series provided data on these issues: the Youth Attitude Tracking Study (YATS) and the Reserve Component Attitude Study (RCAS). The Youth Attitude Tracking Study II (YATS II) is a reconfigured survey begun in 1983 that merges the former YATS and the non-prior service portion of RCAS into a single study. This volume presents supplementary tabulations for the 1985 YATS II. These tabulations show the distributions of responses to the questions asked during the 30-minute telephone interview for the study. Analyses are based on interviews from 5,478 young males, 1,180 older males, and 3,301 females. Data tables for the 1985 YATS II survey present two types of information: Marginal item distributions for each market group, and Cross tabulations of items with the key analysis variable of 'composite propensity to serve in the military.'