Differentiating Peer Contexts and Risk for Adolescent Substance Use

• NCJ Number: 194939
• Journal: Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 31 Issue: 3 Dated: June 2002 Pages: 207-220
• Author(s): Andrea M. Hussong
• Date Published: 2002
• Length: 14 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined three models to explain how substance use within best friendships, peer cliques, and social crowds predicted adolescents' substance involvement.

Abstract

The "unique effects model" examined the relative contributions of substance-using best friends, peer cliques, and social crowds to an adolescent's own substance use. The "risk-exacerbating models" examined whether deviant behavior in more distal peer structures increased risk for adolescent substance use among those youth with substance-using best friends. The "protective models" examined whether having friends who abstained from substance use in the more distal peer structure reduced risk for substance use in youth with substance-using friends. In the current study, a sample of 377 high school juniors and seniors completed surveys that assessed substance use and peer relationships. A series of hierarchical multiple regression analyses was performed to test the three sets of hypotheses. Findings suggest that each of the three dimensions of the peer context uniquely predict adolescent substance use. Moreover, these peer contexts interacted in the prediction of adolescents' substance use, such that adolescents who were more highly embedded in substance-using peer contexts showed greater risk for substance use; whereas, adolescents with substance-using best friends showed a reduced risk for substance use if they had other close friends who were less involved with substances. These findings suggest that researchers and prevention planners should consider multiple dimensions of the adolescents' peer contexts in identifying who to target for interventions, how peers and adolescents come to be similar to one another in their deviant behaviors, and what features of the peer context are malleable points of intervention for changing risk for and protection against adolescents' substance use. 4 figures, 5 tables, and 42 references