Attitudinal and normative predictors of alcohol use by older adolescents and young adults

A model of alcohol use based on the theory of planned behavior, expectancy theory, and the developmental literature on the influence of parents and peers was examined with 87 eleventh grade students, 105 college freshmen, and 107 college juniors. Specifically, the influence of attitudes about the positive and negative consequences of drinking, perceived parental and peer norms about alcohol consumption, and perceived control over drinking predicted self-reported alcohol use. The results suggest that, during adolescence, decisions to consume alcohol are rational, based on the consideration of the positive consequences of alcohol use and perceptions of control over drinking; however, the negative consequences of alcohol use are discounted. While perceived peer norms predicted alcohol consumption in all three age groups, the influence of perceived parental norms varied such that they predicted alcohol use only among the college juniors. Implications and avenues for future research are discussed.     

Peer cluster theory and adolescent alcohol use: an explanation of alcohol use and a comparative analysis between two causal models

This study tests the premise of peer cluster theory as it applies to individual alcohol use, and makes a comparative analysis between its ability to explain alcohol use and marijuana use. Using the results of a 1996 drug and alcohol survey of 1312 Western Kentucky University students, path analysis was used to measure the influence of six of peer cluster theory's psychosocial characteristics on the percentage of the respondent's college friends who use alcohol. All of these variables were then regressed on the respondent's alcohol use. The results of the causal models did show some support for peer cluster theory. The direct effect of the student's association with alcohol-using peers on individual alcohol use was shown to have the strongest direct influence on this outcome variable. However, a few limitations of this theoretical perspective were identified. The causal model for alcohol use showed that the indirect influence of two of these psychosocial characteristics (parental attitudes on alcohol use and success in school) was weaker than their direct influence on individual alcohol use. And, the comparative analysis showed that peer cluster theory is better suited to explain the use of marijuana than the use of alcohol.     

‘If drugs does that to you,then I don't want it.’ Resiliency among non-marijuana using adolescents

The current study utilizes an asset-based approach to examine inner-city African-American and Latino adolescent non-marijuana use. Interview findings suggest that the common theme in adolescent narratives is why they avoid marijuana use. Specifically, adolescents formulate several reasons situated in their perceptions of self, peers, and parents to avoid marijuana use. Drawing on resiliency theory and to broaden our scope of inquiry, we utilize these findings to further delve into the relationship between perceptions of self, peer communication, parental monitoring, and marijuana use avoidance utilizing survey data analysis. Findings can be used to leverage prevention programs with this population.     

Longitudinal Effects of Best‐Friend Communication Against Substance Use for Latino and Non‐Latino White Early Adolescents

Prior research examining peer influences on adolescent alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use has primarily focused on the positive associations that peer substance use and offers have with adolescent use. Consequently, such research has often emphasized the negative influences of peers. This study, however, operationalizes peer influence through best‐friend communication against substance use and examines whether it indirectly protects against substance use by promoting anti–substance use norms. Structural equation modeling was utilized with longitudinal survey data from 277 Latino and 350 non‐Latino white 6th–8th‐grade‐students. For Latino and non‐Latino white students, best‐friend communication was indirectly related to alcohol and cigarette use through norms. Best‐friend communication also was indirectly related to marijuana use, but only for non‐Latino white students and for male students.     

RELIGIOSITY,PEERS, AND DELINQUENCY: DOES RELIGIOSITY REDUCE THE EFFECT OF PEERS ON DELINQUENCY?

Do peer influences have the same effect on religious and nonreligious youth, or does religiosity reduce the effect of peers on delinquency? Using data from the National Youth Survey, we examined the interaction of religiosity and peer influences on marijuana use, alcohol use, hitting, and property offenses. The results suggest that, for marijuana use and alcohol use, three measures of peer influence—peer attitudes, behaviors, and pressure—have weaker effects on religious adolescents. Thus, even when religious youth are exposed to peers who encourage substance use, religiosity may serve as a protective factor that reduces the effect of peers. In contrast, religiosity does not seem to condition the effect of peers on hitting and property offenses.     

Parental Divorce and Romantic Attachment in Young Adulthood: Important Role of Problematic Beliefs

In the current study 45 university students with either divorced or continuously married parents were surveyed about their romantic attachment, positive emotionality, depressive symptomology, self-esteem, and, when applicable, their retrospective beliefs about their parents’ marital dissolution. Findings revealed that parental divorce did not predict attachment insecurity, depression, or low self-esteem. In fact, adult children of divorced parents (ACDP) reported increased compassion, awe, enthusiasm, and perspective taking. Among ACDP, a composite factor representing increased fear of abandonment, peer rejection, and maternal blame was positively associated with adult attachment anxiety, even while controlling for parental conflict and divorce-related socioenvironmental disruption. Results are discussed in terms of their support of a complex understanding of the long-term effects of parental divorce, and in their inconsistency with a purely pathogenic model of parental divorce.     

Parenting Practices as Moderators of the Relationship Between Peers and Adolescent Marijuana Use

Using data from a probability sample of 4,987 adolescents, we examine the degree to which closeness to mother, closeness to father, parental support, and parental monitoring buffer the relationship between peer drug use and adolescent marijuana use. The relationship between peer drug use and adolescent marijuana use was attenuated by both closeness to father and the perception that parents would catch them for major rule violations. These findings confirm the value of conceptualizing certain family characteristics as separate variables and verify that authoritative parenting may help insulate adolescents from peer pressure to use drugs.     

Risk,protection, and substance use in adolescents: a multi-site model

This article reports findings from a national longitudinal cross-site evaluation of high-risk youth to clarify the relationships between risk and protective factors and substance use. Using structural equation modeling, baseline data on 10,473 youth between the ages of 9 and 18 in 48 high-risk communities around the nation are analyzed. Youth were assessed on substance use (cigarette, alcohol, and marijuana use), external risk factors including family, school, peer and neighborhood influences, and individual risk and protective factors including self-control, family connectedness, and school connectedness. Findings indicate strong direct relationships between peer and parental substance use norms and substance use. Individual protective factors, particularly family and school connectedness were strong mediators of individual substance use. These findings suggest that multi-dimensional prevention programming stressing the fostering of conventional anti-substance use attitudes among parents and peers, the importance of parental supervision, and development of strong connections between youth and their family, peers, and school may be most effective in preventing and reducing substance use patterns among high-risk youth.     

Residential Adjustment of Elders: Learning from Experiences With Parents and Peers

The ways elders learn from the experiences of their parents and peers in coping with declining health can affect residential adjustments they make themselves to minimize their exposure to long-term-care risks. Experiences of parents and peers can affect predisposition toward residential options, and parental and peer experiences sometimes can have major influences in elder residential choices. Drawing on qualitative interviews with community-residing elders, we illustrate how elders critically assess how their own parents and peers responded to declining health. We then show how these assessments influence the residential thinking and adjustments of these elders in anticipation of their own declining self-care capacity.     

Internalizing Symptoms,Peer Substance Use,and Substance Use Initiation

This study used longitudinal survey and social network data covering sixth through ninth grades to test whether internalizing symptoms make early adolescents more prone to (1) exposure to and (2) influence by substance‐using peers. Random effects regressions revealed that increases in symptoms were significantly associated with increases in the proportion of friends who used cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana; some associations weakened across grades. Event history models revealed that the effect of friends' smoking on smoking initiation decreased as internalizing symptoms increased; symptoms did not moderate the effects of friends' alcohol and marijuana use on alcohol and marijuana use initiation. These findings counter the influence hypothesis of the co‐occurrence of internalizing symptoms with substance use and partly support the exposure hypothesis.     

Social Networks,Substance Use,and Mental Health in College Students

Abstract

Objectives: The relationship between social network risk (alcohol-using close friends), perceived peer closeness, substance use, and psychiatric symptoms was examined to identify risk and protective features of college students’ social context. Participants: Six hundred and seventy undergraduate students enrolled in a large southeastern university. Methods: An online survey was administered to consenting students. Results: Students with risky networks were at a 10-fold increase of hazardous drinking, 6-fold increase for weekly marijuana use, and 3-fold increase for weekly tobacco use. College students’ who feel very close to their peers were protected against psychiatric symptoms yet were at increased risk for marijuana use. Perceived closeness of peers was highly protective against psychiatric symptoms, adding a natural preventive effect for a population at great risk for mental illness. Conclusions: Results support targeting college students through network-oriented preventive interventions to address substance use as well as mental health.     

Will It Help? Identifying Socialization Discourses That Promote Sexual Risk and Sexual Health Among African American Youth

Because much of the existing research examining sexual communication to African American youth focuses on demographic and parental factors predicting sexual risk behaviors, less is known about factors predicting sexual health, and little is understood about the contributions of peer communications. The current study aimed to expand existing approaches by assessing which socialization discourses communicated by parents and peers contribute to sexual risk and health outcomes (sexual assertiveness, positive sexual affect, and condom self-efficacy). Participants were 631 African American undergraduates (73% female) who indicated the extent to which they had received from their parents and peers each of 28 messages representing four cultural discourses: abstinence, relational sex, sex positive, and gendered sexual roles. As expected, parents were perceived to emphasize relational sex and abstinence messages more than peers, and peers were perceived to communicate sex-positive and gendered sex role messages more than parents. Greater exposure to abstinence messages predicted lower levels of sexual experimentation, whereas exposure to sex-positive messages predicted higher levels. In addition, exposure to relational sex and sex-positive messages predicted higher levels of sexual assertiveness and positive sexual affect. Implications are discussed concerning sexual communications that could help Black youth develop healthy sexual perspectives.     

Adolescents’ Perceptions and Standards of Their Relationships with Their Parents as a Function of Sociometric Status

This study examined adolescents' cognitions of their relationships with their parents as a function of sociometric status. The adolescents' subjective views of their relationships with their mothers and fathers were assessed with respect to seven relationship qualities (general warmth, displays of warmth, intimate self‐disclosure, parental monitoring, conflict, instrumental aid, and provisions of autonomy) across two cognition types: perceptions (beliefs about “how things are”) and standards (beliefs about “how things should be”). The participants were sixth‐, eighth‐, tenth‐, and twelfth‐grade students. Peer sociometric status was determined based on unlimited peer nominations completed by 462 participants. The 190 adolescents classified as average, popular, or rejected were included in the analyses. Perceptions and standards were shown to be distinct but related cognitions. Rejected adolescents differed from their more accepted peers in their perceptions of relationships with both mothers and fathers, specifically with regard to warmth from both parents and autonomy from mothers. Rejected adolescents also reported lower standards for parental monitoring and a range of support qualities from both parents. In addition, rejected adolescents' reports demonstrated greater perception‐standard discrepancies, indicating unmet standards. Overall, sociometric status group differences were more pronounced and consistent for standards than for perceptions, and most status group differences occurred primarily among older adolescents. Findings are discussed in terms of social cognitive patterns associated with peer rejection and developmental changes in family–peer linkages across adolescence.     

Italian College Student-Reported Childhood Exposure to Parental Alienation: Correlates With Well-Being

Two hundred and fifty-seven undergraduate psychology students in Chieti, Italy completed an anonymous and confidential survey regarding their childhood exposure to parental alienation, psychological maltreatment, and measures of current functioning. Results revealed high levels of reported exposure to parental alienation behaviors by those whose parents divorced or separated and by those who reported that—regardless of marital status—their parents’ relationship was “very bad.” Those with any exposure to parental alienation reported higher rates of parental psychological maltreatment, lower rates of parental caring, as well as poor functioning with respect to self-esteem, depression, adult attachment styles, alcohol abuse, self-direction, and cooperation. These findings support the theory that parental alienation represents a risk factor for compromised outcomes across the life span.     

Friendship Quality,Peer Group Affiliation,and Peer Antisocial Behavior as Moderators of the Link Between Negative Parenting and Adolescent Externalizing Behavior

Quality of peer relationships and perceived peer antisocial behavior were examined as moderators of the link between negative parenting and externalizing behavior problems in school from middle childhood to early adolescence. Data on negative parenting (i.e., unilateral parental decision making, low supervision and awareness, and harsh discipline) were collected from 362 parents in the summer preceding the adolescents' entry into Grade 6. Adolescent reports of positive peer relationships and peer antisocial behavior were assessed in the winter of Grade 7. The outcome measure was teacher report of adolescent externalizing behavior in the spring of Grade 7, controlling for externalizing behavior in Grade 5. High levels of friendship quality and peer group affiliation attenuated the association between unilateral parental decision making and adolescent externalizing behavior in school; this was particularly true when adolescents associated with peers perceived to be low in antisocial behavior. In addition, having low‐quality peer relationships and having peers perceived to be highly antisocial further amplified the association between unilateral parental decision making and adolescent externalizing behavior problems. Finally, high levels of friend and peer group antisocial behavior exacerbated the predictiveness of harsh discipline for adolescents' externalizing behavior.     

Predicting continued use of marijuana among adolescents: the relative influence of drug-specific and social context factors.

Most research on the determinants of adolescent drug use has focused on predictors of either initiation or current use. Little attention has been given to the determinants of continued use of drugs after initiation, even though some researchers have found that the consequences of continued use are more serious than those associated with experimental or occasional use. In this study, a longitudinal sample of 456 secondary and high school students who had already tried marijuana was used to examine the determinants of continued use of marijuana. Nearly 38 percent of those who had tried marijuana continued using, according to the definition operationalized in this study. Potential predictor measures were grouped in a drug-specific domain and a social context domain, and their effects on continued use, controlling for background characteristics, were examined in logistic regression models. Results showed that only the drug-specific domain had a statistically significant effect on the likelihood of continued use. Students who felt that the adverse physical and psychological effects of marijuana were not very important reasons for discontinuing use and those who had gotten stoned during their experimental stage of use were the most likely to continue use after initiation. The results suggest that the perceived physical and psychological effects of the drug are more important determinants of continued use than are social factors or benefits related to use. Any relationships between social factors and continued use are mediated by the perceived effects and risks of the drug.     

The moderating effects of culture on peer deviance and alcohol use among high-risk African-American Adolescents

African-American adolescents have lower rates of alcohol consumption than White youth. However, African-American youth suffer disproportionately more adverse social, mental, and physical health outcomes related to alcohol use. Affiliating with negative peers is a risk factor for alcohol initiation and consumption. Cultural variables have shown moderating effects against other risk factors for African-American youth and therefore were the focus of this study. Specifically, we tested whether three culturally-relevant variables, Africentric beliefs, religiosity, and ethnic identity were promotive or protective for alcohol initiation and use within the context of negative peer affiliations. The sample consisted of 114 at-risk African-American adolescents whose ages ranged from 13 to 20. Participants were administered a questionnaire with measures of alcohol initiation and use, peer risk behaviors, ethnic identity, Africentric beliefs, religiosity, and demographic items. Peer risk behaviors accounted for significant percentages of the variance in age of alcohol initiation, lifetime use, and current and heavy alcohol use after adjusting for age and gender. Cultural variables showed both promotive and protective effects. Africentric beliefs were promotive of delayed alcohol initiation, whereas both Africentrism and religiosity moderated peer risk behaviors effect on alcohol initiation. Africentric beliefs were also inversely related to lifetime alcohol use revealing a promotive effect. Moreover, there were significant protective effects of ethnic identity and religiosity on heavy alcohol consumption. One implication of these findings is that prevention programs that infuse cultural values and practices such as Africentrism, ethnic identity, and religiosity may delay alcohol initiation and reduce use especially for youth with high risk peers.     

Precursors of Running Away During Adolescence: Do Peers Matter?

Although peer influence is a salient predictor of delinquency, how it operates in the etiology of runaway behavior is not fully understood. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study demonstrates the importance of taking peers into account in understanding the etiology of running away. The findings suggest that peer deviance is strongly associated with adolescents’ decision to run away, independent of social network characteristics and their own deviant and conventional behavior, parental attachment, and school bonding. However, the causal process that links peer characteristics and running away remains unclear. More studies are needed to disentangle the underlying reciprocal and interactional relationships among peers, individual behavior, and social contexts such as family and school.     

Social Exclusion and Parental Incarceration Impacts on Adolescents' Networks and School Engagement

Although prior research links parental incarceration to deleterious outcomes for children during the life course, few studies have examined whether such incarceration affects the social exclusion of children during adolescence. Drawing on several lines of scholarship, the authors examined whether adolescents with incarcerated parents have fewer or lower quality relationships, participate in more antisocial peer networks, and feel less integrated or engaged in school. The study applies propensity score matching to survey and network data from a national sample of youth. Analyses indicated that children with incarcerated parents have more antisocial peers; the authors found limited evidence that parental incarceration adversely impacts peer networks and school integration domains. The results suggest that the impacts of parental incarceration on adolescents' social lives have less to do with isolation than with the types of peers adolescents befriend. Findings provide support for the idea that parental incarceration may adversely affect children's social exclusion.