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Substance of Youth

The substance of youth - the place of drugs in young people's lives today

By Perri 6, Ben Jupp, Helen Perry and Kristen Lasky, November 1997

6. Optimism, pessimism and fatalism

We wanted to discover whether drug use or non-use is correlated with young people's sense of optimism, pessimism or fatalism.[41] We explored whether it is true that those taking drugs have less hope for themselves, or their society, than do non-users.

Optimism on future projects
Non-users and recreational users interviewed were generally optimistic about getting the job they want but problem users were less optimistic (Figure 10).

Figure 10: Views about job prospects (percentage agreeing that they are "optimistic about getting the job I want")

Source: Demos
Note: The differences between problem users and both recreational and non-users are significant at the 95% confidence level.

Christina (19, recreational user) is a student from Kingston who works in the students' union bar. She said she enjoys:

going clubbing, going to bars, new places, new cities and seeing what's on offer. Going to the cinema, the theatre, reading and going to plays.

Christina said she doesn't worry about unemployment.

I don't expect to be unemployed because I like to work.

Mark (17, recreational user) a student at college in South Yorkshire, is optimistic about getting the job he wants and agrees that if people work hard, they become successful:

Look at my sister. She's a pharmacist. She's worked really hard and used to stop in at night.

Amongst the young people we spoke to, a few more non-users than recreational users were very optimistic about their own prospects in ten years time.

Recreational users had a more pessimistic attitude than non-users about their friends' future. Eleven of 30 non-users "agreed stringly" that friends will be better off in ten years' time, while only 4 of 34 recreational users felt the same. Andrew (23, recreational users) from Brighton disagreed strongly that his friends will be " more prosperous in ten years' time". He said:

In general people aren't confident enough. The world is getting worse. The only thing you can do is get stronger.

The most significant differences in attitudes about the future were between people from different areas, not between recreational and non-users. For instance, people in Wythenshawe were more concerned about their prospects than were the people in Kingston.

Natasha (18, recreational user) from Wythenshawe left school at 16 and is unemployed. She is slightly optimistic about getting the job she wants and said:

I'm going to college in September to re-do [a course] in tourism - GCSEs, GNVQs. I've got to get out of here. You roll down the ladder every day.

In an ex-mining village in South Yorkshire Mike (19, recreational user) reflected the mood typical of his group of friends:

this area's going to get worse. I just see it happening. Things are getting worse in Britain.

And Mike said of his friends' prospects in ten years' time:

a couple [will be] in gaol, probably. My own life [will be] about the same.

Whether or not they used drugs, young people's attitude towards drugs was found to be correlated with their optimism about the future. The more optimistic about they were, the less they condoned drug use. Amongst both recreational users and non-users, those who were optimistic about getting the job they wanted tended to condone drug use less. They were less likely to think that cannabis should be legalised[42] and more likely to say that drug dealers should receive stiffer sentences.[43] Those who thought that "in ten years' time, Britain will be more prosperous" were less likely to think that "it is acceptable for people to take whatever drug they choose".[44] Amongst recreational users, those who thought that "in ten years' time, my life will be better than now" tended not to be those who said they "try to have as much fun as they can now and let the future take care of itself".[45]

Recreational users, and non-users who said they or their peers "take drugs primarily for excitement rather than to escape" tended to agree with the statement that "in ten years' time, my friends will be more prosperous".[46]

Worries
Both the problem users and recreational users we interviewed reported somewhat greater worry than non-users about a range of issues. For example, recreational users were more worried than non-users about unemployment (18 of 34 recreational users compared to 11 of 30 non users).

Pessimistic problem users
Problem users tended to express pessimism, or a tenuous optimism. Patrick (35, problem user) from Kingston said:

I think I have run my race already. I have gone too far to recover. Someone has pissed on the fire. A bit unhappy, I suppose. I will just go on.

Trev (21, problem user) from Leeds said he is "very optimistic" about getting a job. "I'm very confident in myself, just feel hopless at the moment." A problem user from Kingston said:

I worry about whther I've got any diseases, whether drugs will affect me in ten years' time; my mum and dad and brothers. But mainly myself, where I'll be in the future.

Older problem users also frequently lamented what they saw as Britain's overall decline. Julie (37, problem user) from Leed said:

things have got worse on estates. The new generation's crazy. [There are] police all over the place.

Levels of self-esteem
The Synergy survey found similar levels of self-esteem among drug users and non-users.

Resignation about life
The Synergy survey also found a similar number of drug users and non-users have a strong sense of "resignation" about life (including agreement that "there is no point trying, it will make no difference", and that they "are not excited about life").

Relaxed attitude to life
Those who have tried drugs tend to have a more relaxed attitude to life - they 'go with the flow', don't feel the need for clear-cut rules to live by, and say they have few fears (Figure 11).

Figure 11: Drug users exhibited similar levels of resignation and self-esteem, but a more relaxed attitude to complexity in their lives (percentage strongly holding these outlooks)

Source: Synergy
Note: Because this index is an aggregation of questions, the scores can only indicate relative attachment among different groups (see Appendix 2).

Conclusion
According to our research, young non-users and recreational users were generally optimistic about getting the job they want. But respondents were also acutely aware of the difficulties associated with getting work, particularly in more deprived areas.

The research also found that those drug users who thought that "in ten years' time, my friends will be more prosperous or happy than they are now" tended to say they take drugs "for excitement or exhileration rather than for oblivion or escape". And those respondents who are optimistic about the future tend to be more moralistic towards some aspects of drug taking.

These findings suggest that young people's outlook on life in general is still an important determinant of their attitude towards drugs, irrespective of whether or not they use drugs. That is, young people's attitudes towards this issue are less differentiated by drug use than they are by other, more personality-based, elements of character.