The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between Negative Emotionality (NE) and Substance Use (SU) in a large size adolescent population. NE has been identified as an area that shows promise in examining the relationship between psychological difficulties and SU. NE focuses on broad categorical characteristics rather on specific diagnostic criteria. This study reviewed three major etiological models (Psychological, Biological, and Environmental) that have been employed in past research to examine the phenomena of SU. Approaches from the Psychological models were employed in order to examine the relationship between NE and SU within the identified population.

This study examined the independent variables of NE and three step types of NE. The three subtypes of Negative Emotionality: Negative Emotionality Anxiety (NEA), Negative Emotionality Depression (NED), and Negative Emotionality Anger (NEA). The dependent variables of measure were SU (use or non use) and sex (male or female). A survey method was used to collect the data for this study. A Pearson's Chi Square analysis was conducted to measure for the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. The sample for this study was adolescents in the 7^th-12^th grades in Lucas County public, charter, and private school systems who did not meet any exclusionary criteria and were present on the day that the survey instrument was administered. The survey instrument which was used for this study was the Alcohol and Drug Addictions Boards (ADAS) 2004 Student Survey. An ancillary post hoc analysis was conducted in order to measure for the relationship between the additional independent variables of generalized anxiety and social anxiety.

Results of the analysis demonstrated that a significant relationship existed between The independent and dependent variables across all group. The ancillary analysis demonstrated significant results on all but one measure, female substance use and female substance non use. This group did not demonstrate a significant relationship with socialized anxiety. A discussion of the results from the study and the clinical implications of the findings were reviewed.