NCJ Number
171814
Journal
Substance Use and Misuse Volume: 33 Issue: 6 Dated: (1998) Pages: 1337-1366
Date Published
1998
Length
30 pages
Annotation
Primary socialization theory proposes that drug use and deviant behaviors emerge from interactions with the primary socialization sources (family, school, peers); this theory provides a useful model that provides a connection among research on deviance that is occurring in different academic disciplines.
Abstract
Primary socialization theory also postulates that the individual's personal characteristics and personality traits do not directly relate to drug use and deviance, but, in nearly all cases, they influence those outcomes only when they affect the interactions between the individual and the primary socialization sources. Interpretation of research results from the perspective of primary socialization theory suggests several conclusions. First, characteristics such as depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem are related to drug use and deviance only when they have strong effects on the primary socialization process (i.e., among young children). Second, traits such as anger, aggression, and sensation seeking are related to drug use and deviance because these traits are more likely to influence the primary socialization process at all ages. Third, the psychopathologies that are least likely to interfere with bonding with prosocial socialization sources, the anxieties and the affective disorders, are less likely to have comorbidity with drug dependence. In contrast, psychopathologies such as oppositional disorder, conduct disorder, attention deficit disorder, and antisocial personality are more likely to interfere with primary socialization; the literature reveals that these syndromes are also most likely to have a dual diagnosis with drug dependence. Figure, author photographs and biographies, and 87 references