NCJ Number
189950
Journal
Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy Volume: 8 Issue: 3 Dated: August 2001 Pages: 219-232
Date Published
August 2001
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This paper describes, illustrates, and assesses the reliability and construct validity of a method for assessing peer norms regarding drug use and selling.
Abstract
Data were obtained from an ongoing probability survey of 18- to 24-year-old household-recruited youth in Bushwick, a low-income minority neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY, with a population of approximately 100,000 in 1995. Drug use and drug selling were widespread in this neighborhood. Probability sampling of household youth was accomplished through a multi-stage sampling design in which the first stage was the random selection of face-blocks. A face-block is both sides of one street or avenue between adjacent city blocks. As of September 1999, the 41 selected face-blocks contained 2,306 dwelling units, 80 percent of which had been screened. Of the 438 eligible subjects in the household sample, 318 had been interviewed. Of these 318 subjects, 300 provided blood samples, and 314 provided urine specimens. Subjects reported on the proportion of their close friends who encouraged them to use specific drugs or would have objected to such use currently and at age 15. The subjects reported little encouragement by peers to use drugs, and there was substantial peer objection to drug use other than marijuana. Although few subjects had many friends who encouraged them to sell drugs, approximately one-third of the subjects said few if any of their friends would object to their selling drugs. Objection to drug use was more common and encouragement of drug use less common among women's peers than among men's peers. The study concluded that this study methodology could be used reliably and validly to assess young adults' peer norms regarding drug use. 7 tables and 35 references