NCJ Number
143207
Journal
Youth and Society Volume: 24 Issue: 4 Dated: (June 1993) Pages: 443-465
Date Published
1993
Length
23 pages
Annotation
To examine how family and religious factors are associated with adolescent substance abuse, researchers constructed and tested a theoretical model derived from social control and social learning theories, used multiple indicators to measure major concepts, and obtained responses from a sample of 322 adolescents and at least one parent per child.
Abstract
The sample consisted of 30 adolescents who were drug- free, 108 who were identified as experimenters, 14 who were in treatment for mental health problems, 151 who had been arrested for various drug and nondrug offenses, and 19 who were in four drug treatment programs. The study used three measures of adolescent drug use: substance abuse, peer drug use, and family drug use. The results highlighted three major findings. The first was that adolescent drug abuse is strongly correlated with peer drug use. The second finding was that parental monitoring and family drug use do not impact strongly on adolescent drug use but have a moderate association with peer drug use. Finally, family cohesion and religious observance are not correlated with peer drug use, substance abuse, or current use of marijuana and cocaine. 5 tables, 2 figures, and 62 references