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Your kids won't do drugs. They're smarter than that, right?
You wish.
Contrary to parents' cherished beliefs, kids with high IQs are more likely to do drugs, Time.com reports. A study in the U.K. found that women scoring in the top third IQ range at age 5 were more than twice as likely to have taken marijuana or cocaine by age 30, compared with those in the bottom third. Men with the highest intelligence scores were nearly 50 per cent more likely to have taken amphetamines and 65 per cent more likely to have taken ecstasy, compared to those with lower IQs.
"It's counterintuitive," said lead author James White at Cardiff University in Wales.
The research, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, is based on a study involving 7,900 British people born in April, 1970. The data included participants' IQs at ages 5 and 10, as well as follow-up interviews at ages 16 and 30 that discussed drug use and signs of psychological distress.
Dr. White had various explanations for why smart kids may be drawn to drugs.
"People with high IQs are more likely to score high on personality scales of openness to experience," he explained.
Those with the highest IQs – who were also likely to have high socioeconomic status – may have had "an educated view of risk," he added. Unlike the health risks of smoking, for example, the dangers of recreational drug use may not have been apparent among their peers, he said.
In contrast, he suggested, their poorer and less educated counterparts may have learned from watching others suffer the ravages of drug use, including criminal activity to support a habit.
The research echoes r ecent findings in the United States showing that white teens are more likely than black adolescents to drink or use drugs – and nearly twice as likely to abuse them.
But is it wise to trust sweeping statements about drug use?
Referring to the IQ study, SteveH wrote at Time.com, "lumping marijuana use in with cocaine use is not very bright. Lumping "have tried it once" folks in with addicts is not very bright. Looking at one nationality only, and one birth month (April, 1970 only) makes any attempt to generalize the results really suspect."
Do believe that factors such as race and IQ affect drug use?