This pilot study examined the role of individual differences in regulatory focus in the initiation of substance use among young adolescents. Individual differences in the kinds of goals people pursue represent potential risk factors for the initiation of substance use during adolescence. Regulatory focus theory (Higgins, 1997) stipulates that individuals vary in their strength of orientation toward promotion goals (“making good things happen”) and prevention goals (“keeping bad things from happening”).

We hypothesized that individual differences in regulatory focus would predict adolescents’ reports of attitudes about substance use and initiation of use. Our predictions were tested in a sample of 241 seventh grade students. Prevention orientation was associated with lower levels of reported lifetime use and reporting fewer friends who used substances. In a causal modeling analysis, prevention orientation contributed to variance in lifetime reported use via associations with both beliefs about peers’ attitudes toward use and reported friends’ use.

These findings suggest the possibility of incorporating regulatory focus within interventions intended to prevent or delay initiation of substance use. In addition, exploratory analyses using additional waves of data indicate that there may be several distinguishable developmental trajectories that link individual differences in regulatory focus and likelihood of substance use in early to mid-adolescence. We are continuing to apply multivariate statistical techniques to explore and validate these initial trajectories and to identify individual and contextual variables that characterize adolescents who are members of each group.