Using panel data to examine sex differences in causal relationships among adolescent alcohol use,norms, and peer alcohol use

This paper uses longitudinal data and multiple regression of follow-up data on baseline data to identify direction of causality among adolescent alcohol use, normative structure toward alcohol, and peer alcohol use. Baseline and follow-up data were collected on a random sample of 100 adolescents (54 males). Separate regressions were performed on male and female respondents. Among males, self-drinking and normative structure toward alcohol were found to have a reciprocal relationship over time. No significant relationship was found between self and peer alcohol use over time among males. Among females, close-friend alcohol use was found to be causally prior to self drinking and other-friend drinking level. Normative structure toward alcohol was found unrelated to other variables over time among females.This research has been partially supported by grant #H84 AA 04026 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Joan F. Roberton, principal investigator.He received his Ph. D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Social Work. Research interests include effects of peer and family on adolescent deviant behavior, and effects of labeling on referral of adolescents to social service agencies.     

Adolescents’ time use: Effects on substance use,delinquency and sexual activity

Using an integration of social control theory and the routine activity perspective, adolescent time use was examined for effects on problem behaviors. We examined a wide variety of time use categories, including homework, extracurricular activities, sports time, alone time, paid work, housework, television watching, as well as indices of family time and peer time, for their effects on heavy alcohol use, cigarette smoking, illicit drug use, delinquency and sexual activity. The study employed a representative household sample of adolescents (n=606) and took into account important sociodemographic factors – gender, age, race (Black and White), and socioeconomic status. The most important predictors of adolescent problem behaviors were family time and peer time. Family time serves as a protective factor against all five problem behaviors while peer time is a highly significant risk factor for all five problem behaviors. Ph.D. in Sociology from the University at Buffalo. She is a Senior Research Scientist at the Research Institute on Addictions, University at Buffalo, 1021 Main Street, Buffalo, The State University of New York 14203. Her research interests include family influences on the development of adolescent substance use, gambling, and other problem behaviors M.A. in Mathematics from the University of Rochester. He is Project Manager/Data Analyst at the Research Institute on Addictions, University at Buffalo, 1021 Main Street, The State University of New York 14203. His current research interests include advanced data analysis techniques for studies of alcohol, other substance use and gambling behaviors among youth and adults. Ph.D. in Psychology from the University at Buffalo. He is a Senior Research Scientist at the Research Institute on Addictions, University at Buffalo, 1021 Main Street, The State University of New York 14203. His research interests include the substance abuse/crime nexus, the epidemiology of substance abuse, and the etiology and epidemiology of pathological gambling. Ph.D. in Sociology from Yale University. He is Professor and Chair in the Department of Sociology, University at Buffalo, 430 Park Hall, Buffalo, The State University of New York, 14260. His research interests include interpersonal relations in adolescent, family, friendship, and work groups. M.S. in Epidemiology from the University at Buffalo. She is a retired Research Scientist from the Research Institute on Addictions, University at Buffalo, 1021 Main Street, The State University of New York 14203. Her research interests include alcohol and other substance use among adolescents and families     

Drug use and level of anxiety among college students

The present study was begun with the expectation that a positive relationship would be found between extent of drug use and level of anxiety, since earlier research had suggested that more anxious individuals were more likely to experiment with drugs. However, this was not found to be the case. Male drug users and nonusers were not found to differ in mean anxiety score on three separate anxiety scales. Female users were found to be less anxious than nonusers, findings contradictory to the initial hypothesis. The findings are consistent with recent research by Cross and Davis (1972) and Hogan et al.(1970) in suggesting that drug users may be more socially outgoing and adventuresome than nonusers.Research interests include psychotherapy processes and the measurement of personality variables.Research interests include drug usage among both college and noncollege youth and the effectiveness of residential and other treatment programs in reducing drug dependence.     

Status origins,youth rebellion,and delinquency: A reexamination of the class issue

This report examines the relationship between status origins and delinquency using an expanded range of status origin indicators together with both self-report and official measures of delinquency. Data were drawn from an ongoing investigation of adolescents in the Pacific Northwest. It was found that with few exceptions all four measures of status origins offer extremely low predictive utility vis-à-visdelinquent involvement. It is suggested that future efforts be directed at unraveling other more fruitful indicators of delinquency and, most especially, at examining the structure, process, and implications of differential status allocation within the educational arena.The research on which this report is based was supported by funds granted by the National Institute of Mental Health (Grant No. MH14806 Maturational Reform and Rural Delinquency).Received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Oregon. Currently Assistant Professor of Sociology at the State University College of New York at Geneseo. Teaches courses in juvenile delinquency, criminology, and deviance.Received his Ph.D. in educational foundations from the University of Oregon. Presently Associate Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Educational Foundations at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Teaches classes in the Sociology of Education and Alternative Strategies in Education.     

School context,gender, and delinquency

This study compares two high schools serving the same community and compares student bodies with similar background characteristics. The purpose is to examine how control/strain variables predict delinquency in two distinct school contexts. It was found that minor delinquency occurred more often in the environment dominated by competitive academic achievement, routine handling of discipline, and unpredictable supervision. Examination of the model paths suggest that this environment is also conservative and unlikely to offer legitimate opportunities to girls with gender-egalitarian orientation. The school context characterized by a broader definition of success, more specialized discipline, and predictable supervision promotes stronger bonds with its students and lower levels of delinquency for both genders.The research reported here was funded by Grant 79-JN-AX-0030 from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, U.S. Department of Justice. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1984 meeting of the American Society of Criminology in Cincinnati, Ohio.Received Ph.D. in Sociology and Social Work from the University of Michigan. Research interests include deviance and control, and gender issues.     

A cross-cultural comparison of sociopsychological factors in alcohol use among adolescents in Israel,France, and the United States

The correlates of alcohol use by adolescents are compared in three cultures with different prevalences of alcohol use: France, with high prevalence; Israel, with low prevalence; and the United States, in the middle. In all three countries, significant others, parents and peers, are more powerful predictors of alcohol use than are the adolescent's personal attributes, such as attitudes, behaviors, and demographic characteristics. Cross-cultural differences appear in the relative importance of parents and peers and in the structure of influence of parents and peers as role models. Parents are more important role models in Israel than in the other two cultures, while peers are more important in the United States than in France or in Israel.This research was partially supported by Research Grants DA01902, DA00064, and Research Scientist Grant K05-DA00081 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and by the Center for SocioCultural Research on Drug Use, Columbia University.Received Ph.D. from Stanford University. Main interests are mathematical sociology, social stratification, and adolescent substance use.Received Ph.D. from Columbia University. Main interests are adolescent socialization, substance use, and psychiatric epidemiology.     

Substance use and its relationship to conduct problems and delinquency in young boys

The paper presents lifetime and six-month prevalence of substance use by 1st, 4th, and 7th graders (N=2573). Smoking and alcohol consumption was surprisingly high even for 1st graders. The use of developmentally more advanced substances, such as marijuana, was associated with the use of substances that typically emerge earlier, such as beer. Significantly more of the multiple substance users in the 1st and 4th grade were already engaged in a variety of conduct problems and delinquent acts than were either single users or nonusers. The findings show that substance use, even at Grades 1 and 4, is an indicator of boys who commit a wide variety of problem behaviors. For the 7th graders, the use of marijuana was especially associated with the commission of more serious delinquent acts. Multiple substance use reported by the 7th graders also signified a higher frequency and volume of use. The results of the study are related to a developmental conceptualization of conduct problems, delinquency and substance use.Research interests: antisocial behavior and substance use.Research interests: the development of antisocial behavior and substance use; familial processes leading to deviant behavior; the prediction of delinquency.Research interests: development of concealing antisocial behaviors and processes that affect such development.     

Drug culture expertise and substance use

This study concerns the relationship between knowledge of drug culture and substance use. Results from a sample of 2,635 middle and high school students indicate that (1) knowledge of drug culture is positively correlated with substance use; (2) drug knowledge is more reliable and coherent in older youth; (3) drug knowledge is unrelated to other kinds of knowledge acquired in school; (4) youth exposed to peers' substance use in school have more drug knowledge; and (5) the earlier young people begin using drugs and alcohol, the more they know about the drug culture. Results suggest that knowledge of the drug culture may be an unobtrusive indicator of substance use problems.This project was made possible by a grant from the Tulsa Psychiatric Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma.Received Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley in personality psychology. Research interests include school dropouts, substance use, delinquency, identity, narcissism, and health. To whom correspondence should be addressed.Received Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley in personality psychology. Research interests include school dropouts, substance use, delinquency, personal commitments, identity, narcissism, and health.Received Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley in personality psychology. Research interests include moral development and personality.     

Psychological distress and alcohol use in Hispanic adolescents

Psychological distress has been increasingly implicated as an important risk factor that predisposes adolescents toward alcohol and drug use, particularly for Hispanics and other ethnic minority groups. The scant research on the relation between psychosocial stress and alcohol use has found higher levels of alcohol and drug use among Hispanic adolescents who report higher levels of psychological and emotional distress. In this study, Hispanic adolescents (N=171, with a median age of 14, completed a paper- and-pencil questionnaire, which was designed to assess levels of psychosocial stress, anxiety, and depression. Self-reported patterns of alcohol use were also assessed. In general, males reported higher levels of alcohol use and more friends who drink, compared to females. The study also found generational differences in drinking patterns. A strong association between psychosocial stress, depression, and alcohol use also was found, suggesting that Hispanic adolescents are using alcohol as a way of coping with conflicts in adapting to the norms and expectations of the dominant group and other difficult events and conditions that produce psychological distress.Received Ph.D. in 1988 from the University of California, Los Angeles, specializing in developmental psychology. Research interests include the educational attainment of Hispanic and minority children, alcohol use among adolescents, and social policy.     

Sexual risk behavior,knowledge, and condom use among adolescents in juvenile detention

This paper reports on sexual behavior, knowledge of sexually transmitted diseases (including AIDS) and condoms, and condom use among African-American and white incarcerated adolescents in Seattle, Washington. One hundred nineteen adolescents in a juvenile detention facility completed questionnaires that assessed their lifetime and recent sexual behaviors, an objective test of disease and condom knowledge, attitudes and norms regarding condom use with steady and casual partners, prior condom use, and intentions to use condoms. The results indicate that these adolescents are at high risk by a number of indicators: They have a high average number of partners, have unprotected vaginal and anal sex, and many have sex with known or suspected drug users. Their overall knowledge of condoms and sexual transmitted diseases risks is high, but high knowledge is not correlated with positive attitudes; for one attitude measure, high knowledge is significantly correlated with negative attitudes toward condom use. These findings suggest that programs designed solely to increase knowledge are unlikely to effect behavior change.This research presented in this paper was supported by a research grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.Received Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Washington. Research interests are in sexual decision making and attitude-behavior relationships.Received Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Washington. Research interests are in sexual behavior and health.Received Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Washington. Research interests are in problem behaviors of adolescence.     

Family structure,family attributes,and delinquency in a sample of low-income,minority males and females

A popular thesis in criminology links broken homes to juvenile delinquency. This thesis has been invoked to explain higher rates of delinquency among youth from low-income, minority families than among youth from mainstream backgrounds. The study reported here employs data collected at two points in time to assess the thesis that family structure is significantly associated with self-reported delinquency within a sample of black males and females from low-income families. The relationships between an array of family variables, including family structure, and each of four types of self-reported delinquency are examined in analysis conducted separately for males and females. Findings indicate that few family factors are significant for delinquency and family structure is of minimal importance for the types of delinquency examined. The results differ for males and females. These findings raise serious questions about the cogency of the broken-home thesis of delinquency to explain delinquency among nonmainstream groups in our society.Research reported here was supported in part by NIMH Grant 1 RPI MH33488-01A1 and conducted in part under the auspices of the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation, Ypsilanti, Michigan. Views expressed by the author do not represent official positions of those agencies.The author received her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Georgia in 1981. Her research interests at present include the effects of social stratification processes on delinquency and crime, particularly the effects of such social correlates of crime as race, sex, and social class.     

The perils of mrs pooter: satire,modernity and motherhood in the lower middle class in England, 1870-1920

Abstract

This article examines some contrasting representations of lower middle-class women, marriage and motherhood in late Victorian and Edwardian England. Alongside traditional cutting images of white-collar men were misogynist criticisms of suburban women as obsessive consumers and irresponsible child-rearers who lowered racial and cultural quality. By contrast, the women who wrote about themselves in an 1898 Daily Telegraph series on working wives focused on practical problems faced by working mothers, traversing the same themes of the double burden, adjusting employment to childcare imperatives, and ‘quality time’ with children, which remain symptomatic of the problems of ‘modern’ motherhood     

Perceived vs. actual friends' use of alcohol,cigarettes, marijuana,and cocaine: Which has the most influence?

Determinants of the use of alcohol, alcohol without parental knowledge, cigarettes, marijuana, and crack were assessed in predominantly black, urban, fourth- and fifth-grade students. Each subject identified three best friends. Logistic and least-square regression analyses indicated that children's perceptions of friends' use, perceptions of family use, and actual use of classmates were better predictors of substance use than friends' actual use. The pattern of predictors suggested that peer behaviors and attitudes are more influential for children's socially censured behaviors such as using alcohol without parental permission than for more socially approved behaviors such as using alcohol with parental permission. The importance of perceived friends' use vs. friends' actual use supports Behavioral Intention Theory and Cognitive Developmental Theory, while the importance of classroom use supports Social Learning Theory or may reflect social and environmental conditions including neighborhood availability of drugs and neighborhood values regarding substance use.This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (RO1 DA 04497). Portions were presented at a NIDA Technical Review Meeting, Washington, DC, September 1989, and at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association, Chicago, October 1989.Received Ph.D. in developmental psychology from The State University of New York at Buffalo. His research interests include social and environmental influences on the early use of abusable substances; the development of children's eating and exercise patterns, and their relationship to cardiovascular risk factors; and the development of understanding of and attitudes toward health and illness, including heart disease and AIDS.Received Ph.D. in social pharmacy from the University of Minnesota. Her research interests include personal, social, and environmental influences on the use of medicines and abusable substances; and children's health promotion and disease prevention.     

School predictors of alcohol use in high school Hispanic and non-Hispanic youth

Many youth alcohol prevention programs are not culturally sensitive and have focused on avoidance tactics. Given the differences in alcohol use and the possibly differing intervention strategies for Hispanic and non-Hispanic youth, this study aims to analyze the contributing factors of alcohol use within these two groups. Two hundred and one high school students participated in a survey. Findings indicate that prevention programs should focus on situational opportunities to use alcohol for both Hispanic and non-Hispanic youth. For Hispanic students, school management skills did not relate to less alcohol use, as expected. There should be less emphasis on how risky drinking can be, and more emphasis on the moral implications or “wrongness” of drinking, particularly for non-Hispanics. The discussion includes some possible interpretations of the relationship between skill management skills and heightened alcohol use for Hispanic students.     

The impact of puberty and dating on eating problems among middle school girls

Puberty has been related to the onset of a variety of weight concerns and eating problems among middle school girls, including body dissatisfaction, dieting, and eating disorders. At least two models can be used to explain these relationships. The first emphasizes the timing of puberty, arguing that girls who face early puberty are particularly stressed because of the off-time nature of the event. The second focuses on synchronous events. For girls more than boys, puberty is likely to coincide with the change from elementary to middle school and/or beginning to date. Such synchronous events may create greater stress for girls. Seventy-nine girls were tested during the spring of their sixth- and eighth-grade years. Pubertal and dating status, body dissatisfaction, weight management, and eating disordered attitudes (using the Children's EAT:ChEAT) were assessed. The simple timing model (early vs. on time vs. late) was not supported. The simple synchronous model received some support in that girls with synchronous onset of menstruation and dating had higher ChEAT scores as well as greater body dissatisfaction. However, the data indicated that girls for whom puberty was early and coincidental with dating might be at unusual risk. These girls showed the highest levels of body dissatisfaction and the highest ChEAT scores.Ph.D. from Temple University. Research interest is in developmental psychology.Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa BarbaraThese authors have a joint research program in the developmental psychopathology of eating problems.The first wave of data for this report was collected as part of her undergraduate honors thesis.Earlier versions of these data were presented at the 1991 meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Seattle, Washington and the 1992 Conference on Human Development, Atlanta, Georgia.     

Prevalence and patterns of substance use among early adolescents

Prevalence and patterns of substance use are described for a sample of 105 San Francisco East Bay adolescents (age 14). Data are compared with national statistics on substance use among high school seniors. While alcohol use appeared comparable to the national statistics, tobacco use was less prevalent among this younger western sample. Despite the differences in ages, use of marijuana, cocaine, and hallucinogens was similar to national high school prevalence; use of other harder drugs was more extensive among the older, national sample. Contrary to typical findings, males and females were not found to differ in frequency or extent of substance use; females appeared somewhat more involved in substance use at this early age. Initiation of substance use occurred at early grade levels, suggesting that intervention efforts should begin prior to junior high, perhaps as early as fourth or fifth grade.This study was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH 16080 to Jack Block and Jeanne H. Block.Received her Ph.D. from Harvard University. Main interest is cognitive development and development in adolescence.Received his Ph.D. from Stanford University. Main interest is personality development.     

Association of Contextual Factors with Drug Use and Binge Drinking among White, Native American, and Mixed-Race Adolescents in the General Population

Large-scale surveys have shown elevated risk for many indicators of substance abuse among Native American and Mixed-Race adolescents compared to other minority groups in the United States. This study examined underlying contextual factors associated with substance abuse among a nationally representative sample of White, Native American, and Mixed-Race adolescents 12–17?years of age, using combined datasets from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH 2006–2009, N?=?46,675, 48.77?% female). Native American adolescents displayed the highest rate of past-month binge drinking and past-year illicit drug use (14.06 and 30.91?%, respectively). Results of a logistic regression that included seven predictors of social bonding, individual views of substance use, and delinquent peer affiliations showed that friendships with delinquent peers and negative views of substance use were associated significantly with both substance abuse outcomes among White and Mixed-Race adolescents and, to a lesser extent, Native American adolescents. The association of parental disapproval with binge drinking was stronger for White than for Native American adolescents. Greater attention to specific measures reflecting racial groups’ contextual and historical differences may be needed to delineate mechanisms that discourage substance abuse among at-risk minority adolescent populations.     

Different views: The impact of sex,area of residence,and victimization on teenagers' explanations for delinquency

It was hypothesized, following attribution theory, thatpsychological closeness (such as familiarity, similarity, and physical proximity) to the perpetrators of delinquency would lead to its being explained in terms of external (environmental and situational) factors. In contrast, since being a victim of delinquent acts imbues one with personal relevance it should promote internal (dispositional and personal) explanations. Consistent with these hypotheses, the 15-year-olds in the present study endorsed less individualistic explanations and stressed the social functions of delinquency more than did older subjects in an earlier study (A. Furnham and M. Henderson [1983] Lay Theories of Delinquency,European Journal of Social Psychology, 13: 107–112). Moreover, males, those living closer to the city center, and nonvictims favored external explanations more than did females, those living on the outskirts of the city and in rural areas and victims. It is concluded that social explanations for delinquency are informed both by group membership and by the context and quality of experiences of delinquency.This research was conducted by the second author as a part of her undergraduate dissertation while all three authors were at the Department of Psychology of the Bristol University.He has a Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Kent at Canterbury, and is currently researching self-awareness and self-presentation in intergroup behavior.She is currently employed by the Inland Revenue.He has a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Bristol, and is currently conducting research into social identity and social influence.