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Abstract
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The social psychological antecedents of entry into three sequential stages of adolescent drug use, hard liquor, marihuana, and other illicit drugs, are examined in a cohort of high school students in which the population at risk for initiation into each stage could be clearly specified. The analyses are based on a two-wave panel sample of New York State public secondary students and subsamples of matched adolescent-parent and adolescent-best schoolfriend dyads. Each of four clusters of predictor variables, parental influences, peer influences, adolescent involvement in various behaviors, and adolescent beliefs and values, and single predictors within each cluster assume differential importance for each stage of drug behavior. Prior involvement in a variety of activities, such as minor delinquency and use of cigarettes, beer, and wine are most important for hard liquor use. Adolescents' beliefs and values favorable to the use of marihuana and association with marihuana-using peers are the strongest predictors of initiation into marihuana. Poor relations with parents, feelings of depression, and exposure to drug-using peers are most important for initiation into illicit drugs other than marihuana.
VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The aim of this study by Kandel et al. was to examine the antecedents of entering into three different stages of drug use among high school students over the course of one year. The three stages were initiation into hard liquor, initiation into marijuana, and initiation to other illicit drugs.
METHODOLOGY:
A longitudinal quasi-experimental design was used. A self administered questionnaire was given to a multi-stage random sample of high school students in New York State. The questionnaires were given to the 8,206 adolescents in their homerooms during the fall semester in 1971 and again in the spring of the same academic year. Two weeks after the questionnaires with the youth were completed, questionnaires were mailed out to either the mother or father of the youth. Questionnaires were also administered to the students' best friends. After the second wave of data collection only 38% of the original sample had matched parental and best friend questionnaires. The large amount of missing cases lead to a sample bias under-representing drug users.
The questionnaire included questions regarding drug use, parental influence, peer influence, and adolescent intrapersonal characteristics. The drug use questions asked whether the youth had ever used any of the following substances for nonmedical reasons: hard liquor, marijuana, hashish, LSD, other psychedelics (psilocybin, mescaline, peyote, DMT, STP), methedrine, other amphetamines (dexedrine, benzedrine, dexamyl), barbituates (seconal, nembutal, tuinal, phenobarbital), tranquilizers (equanil, miltown, librium, valium, thorazine), cocaine, heroin, other opiates (opium, morphine, dolophine, methadone, demerol, darvon), and inhalants (glue, freon, carbona). The amount of current use was asked for beer, wine and cigarettes.
Parental influence questions were regarding: parental drug behavior, parental attitudes about drugs, and the quality of adolescent-parent relationship.
Peer influence questions covered: peer drug behaviors, peer attitudes about drugs, the quality of peer-adolescent relations, and availability of drugs.
Adolescent intrapersonal characteristics included questions regarding: their psychological state (depression, normlessness, self-image and personal growth), academic orientation, life values, attitudes about drugs, delinquent involvement, prior drug use, and demographics.
Multiple regression was used to analyze the data. The findings were presented in pearson correlations between time 1 predictors and initiation to substances at time 2, plus two coefficients of determination.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
The main predictors of initiation to hard liquor were the adolescent's perceived parental and peer use of hard liquor as well as prior delinquency and drug use. While frequency of hard liquor use by the father (r=.197) and mother (r=.176) had moderate effects on the youths initiation to hard liquor, parental attitudes about drugs and quality of adolescent-parent relations did not. The only peer influences were the adolescent's perception of peer use (r=.187) of hard liquor and the degree of peer activity. Peer attitudes about drugs and availability had little to no effect. Minor delinquency (r=.243), prior cigarette (r=.285), beer and wine (r=.310) use also had an effect on the initiation to hard liquor.
The most important predictors of initiation to marijuana had to do with availability and peer influences. Having been offered marijuana had the strongest effect (r=.224) followed by the adolescent's perceived number of friends who used marijuana (r=.222), then perceived peer approval of drug use (r=.182).
Initiation to other illicit drug use was effected most by closeness to father (r=.278), availability (perceived number of people who might supply heroin) (r=.185), and frequency of prior marijuana use (r=.246).
In sum, parental and peer drug use had a stronger effect on the youths initiation of drugs than their attitudes and beliefs about drugs. The quality of parent-child relationship, specifically with the father was important in the initiation of illicit drugs, was slightly important for marijuana initiation, but was not important for hard liquor initiation. (CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
KW - Juvenile Offender
KW - Juvenile Substance Use
KW - Substance Use Causes
KW - Alcohol Use Causes
KW - Drug Use Causes
KW - Substance Use Risk Factors
KW - Senior High School Student
KW - Late Adolescence
KW - New York
KW - Offender Characteristics
KW - Parent Child Relations
KW - Peer Relations
KW - Peer Influence
KW - Family Relations
KW - Parent Influence
Language: en |