Peer Victimization and Substance Use in Early Adolescence: Influences of Deviant Peer Affiliation and Parental Knowledge

Being the target of peer victimization contributes to alcohol and cigarette use during early adolescence. This 1-year longitudinal study extended the current literature by investigating the potential links between peer victimization and alcohol and cigarette initiation among a sample of 723 youths recruited from three middle schools in Southern China. We proposed a moderated mediation model to examine whether peer victimization is indirectly related to substance use via deviant peer affiliation, and whether the strength of this mediation is moderated by the level of parental knowledge for both genders. All participants self-reported using questionnaires to assess peer victimization, deviant peer affiliation, parental knowledge, and substance use. The results revealed that peer victimization was indirectly associated with increased alcohol use via deviant peer affiliation for both genders. However, deviant peer affiliation mediated the impact of peer victimization on trying cigarettes for only boys. Moreover, parental knowledge acted as a protective role for increases in alcohol use for girls, but not for boys. These findings highlight the potential role of deviant peer affiliation to explain the relationship between peer victimization and substance use, and provide important implications for addressing the adverse consequences of peer victimization.     

Childhood Peer Relationship Problems and Young People's Involvement with Deviant Peers in Adolescence

Using prospective longitudinal data from the Christchurch Health and Development Study, this article examined the relationship between children's peer relationship problems in middle childhood and their subsequent risk of forming deviant peer affiliations in adolescence. The analysis proceeded in three steps. First, a structural equation model demonstrated a moderate association between early peer relationship problems and later deviant peer affiliations (r = .27). Second, the model was extended to include a latent variable measure of early conduct problems. This analysis revealed that when the confounding effects of concurrently measured conduct problems were taken into account, peer relationship problems in middle childhood were no longer significantly related to young people's choice of deviant peers in adolescence. Third, the model was further extended to include lagged variables, permitting an examination of possible reciprocal relationships between early conduct problems and peer relationship problems. Results suggested that both early peer relationship problems and adolescent deviant peer involvement are symptomatic of early child behavioral adjustment. The implications of these findings for explanations of deviant peer selection are discussed.     

同伴排斥与青少年早期饮酒行为:同伴侵害和不良同伴的中介效应

采用同伴提名、同伴侵害问卷、不良同伴问卷和饮酒行为问卷调查广东地区4所普通初级中学1386名7年级学生,考察了同伴排斥与青少年早期饮酒行为的关系,以及同伴侵害和结交不良同伴在其中的链式中介效应。结果发现:(1)同伴排斥、同伴侵害和结交不良同伴均与青少年早期的饮酒行为呈显著正相关;(2)同伴侵害和结交不良同伴在同伴排斥影响青少年早期饮酒行为过程中的链式中介效应显著,即同伴排斥通过增加同伴侵害,从而提高结交不良同伴的风险,进而增加青少年早期的饮酒行为;(3)在控制同伴侵害和结交不良同伴后,同伴排斥对青少年早期的饮酒行为仍存在显著预测作用。     

School Substance Use Norms and Racial Composition Moderate Parental and Peer Influences on Adolescent Substance Use

Parental and peer influences on adolescent substance use have been well demonstrated. However, limited research has examined how parental and peer influences vary across school contexts. This study used a multilevel approach to examine the effects of school substance use norms and school racial composition in predicting adolescent substance use (a composite measure of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use) and in moderating parental and peer influences on adolescent substance use. A total of 14,346 adolescents from 34 schools in a mid‐western county completed surveys electronically at school. Analyses were conducted using hierarchical linear modeling. Results indicated that school‐level disapproval against substance use and percentage of minority students at school were negatively associated with adolescent substance use. School‐level disapproval moderated the association between peer substance use and adolescent substance use, with the association being stronger when school‐level disapproval was lower. School racial composition moderated the influence of parental disapproval and peer substance use on adolescent substance use. Specifically, both the association between parental disapproval and adolescent substance use and the association between peer substance use and adolescent substance use were weaker for adolescents who attended schools with higher percentages of minority students. Findings highlighted the importance of considering the role of school contexts, in conjunction with parental and peer influences, in understanding adolescent substance use.     

Peer Substance Use and Homelessness Predicting Substance Abuse from Adolescence Through Early Adulthood

Adolescents who experience homelessness are at higher risk for abusing substances, and for being exposed to substance-using peers. The current study used a longitudinal design to track substance abuse, affiliation with substance-using peers, and episodes of homelessness among a sample of 223 adolescents who were housed at the baseline data collection and 148 adolescents who were housed at baseline. Participants were interviewed at six waves over 6.5 years, covering an age range from 13 to 25. Many participants experienced a recurrence of homelessness during follow-up, with 64.6 % of the baseline homeless group and 22.6 % of the baseline housed group reporting an additional episode of homelessness. Both alcohol abuse and other drug abuse symptoms showed an increase in adolescence followed by slowing in early adulthood. Recent homelessness and friend alcohol use predicted alcohol abuse symptoms, and the strength of the influence of friend use decreased over time. Recent homelessness and friend drug use predicted other drug abuse symptoms. Duration of the initial episode of adolescent homelessness showed no influence on substance abuse over time, or the effects of other predictors, highlighting the importance of conceptualizing the experience of homelessness as a recent stressor rather than an enduring personal characteristic.     

父母教养方式对初中生攻击行为的影响:越轨同伴交往和自我控制的作用

以631名初中生为被试,采用问卷法考察父母教养方式与初中生攻击行为的关系,同时探讨越轨同伴交往的中介作用,以及该作用是否受自我控制的调节。结果发现：（1）消极父母教养方式对越轨同伴交往、攻击行为均有显著的正向预测作用;（2）越轨同伴交往在消极父母教养方式与初中生攻击行为之间起部分中介作用;（3）自我控制可以调节越轨同伴交往对初中生攻击行为的作用,对于低自我控制个体,越轨同伴交往起部分中介作用;对于高自我控制个体,越轨同伴交往的中介效应不显著,消极父母教养方式对攻击行为仅有直接作用。     

Trajectories of Parenting Processes and Adolescent Substance Use: Reciprocal Effects

Drawing on transactional theories of child development, we assessed bidirectional links between trajectories of adolescent substance use and parenting processes from early through mid adolescence. Hierarchical generalized models estimated trajectories for 3,317 adolescents from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, exploring both between- and within-individual effects. Between individuals, adolescents reporting more regular family activities and greater father and mother knowledge of friends and teachers experienced lower levels of substance use through mid adolescence. Similarly, adolescents with more frequent substance use reported lower family activities, father knowledge, and mother knowledge, though these differences dissipated over time. More conservative within-individual differences indicated a prospective protective effect of family activities, with increases in adolescent participation in family activities predicting later declines in substance use. Results support the central importance of engagement in regular family activities, and suggest the need for further exploration of transactional processes between parents and children in the development of risk behaviors.     

Maturation, Peer Context, and Indigenous Girls' Early-Onset Substance Use

This paper examines a biosocial model of the impact of puberty on Indigenous girls' early-onset substance use by considering the potential mediating role of peer context (i.e. mixed-sex peer groups and substance use prototypes) on the puberty and substance use relationship. Data include responses from 360 girls of a common Indigenous cultural group residing on reservations/reserves in the upper Midwest and Canada. Results of structural equation modeling revealed that the statistically significant relationship between girls' pubertal development and early-onset substance use was mediated by both mixed-sex/romantic peer groups and favorable social definitions of substance use. Implications for substance use prevention work include addressing the multiple and overlapping effects of peer influence from culturally-relevant perspectives.     

Delinquency and Substance Use among Gang-Involved Youth: The Moderating Role of Parenting Practices

This study uses longitudinal data from an ethnically diverse sample of 300 ninth grade students to examine the moderating effect of parenting practices upon the relationship between gang involvement and adolescent problem behavior. Results of hierarchical linear modeling indicate that gang involvement is a highly significant positive predictor of each of three categories of problem behavior (minor delinquency, major delinquency, and substance use). Three of the four parenting variables (behavioral control, psychological control, parent–adolescent conflict, and warmth) are found to moderate the relationship between gang involvement and problem behavior, with the most consistent effects found for behavioral control and warmth. These findings indicate that intervention efforts aimed at reducing the impact of gang involvement on adolescent development should consider factors that may decrease the deleterious behavioral outcomes associated with youth gangs.     

School Connectedness and Problematic Internet Use in Adolescents: A Moderated Mediation Model of Deviant Peer Affiliation and Self-Control

Although a growing body of research documents the negative association between school connectedness and adolescent problematic Internet use (PIU), little is known about the mediating mechanism (i.e., how school connectedness relates to PIU?) and moderating mechanism (i.e., when the protection is most potent?) underlying this relation. The present study examined whether deviant peer affiliation mediated the relationship between school connectedness and PIU, and whether this mediating process was moderated by adolescent self-control. A total of 2,758 Chinese adolescents (46 % male; mean age?=?13.53 years, SD?=?1.06) from 10 middle schools completed anonymous questionnaires regarding school connectedness, deviant peer affiliation, self-control, and PIU. After controlling for gender, age, socioeconomic status, and parental attachment, it was found that the negative association between school connectedness and adolescent PIU was partially mediated by deviant peer affiliation. Moreover, this indirect link was stronger for adolescents with low self-control than for those with high self-control. These findings underscore the importance of integrating the social control theory and organism-environment interaction model to understand how and when school connectedness impacts adolescent PIU.     

Religiousness as a Protective Factor for Substance Use in Dance Sport

Although religiousness is found to be a significant protective factor in substance use, there is an evidential lack of studies of such in athletes. The aim of the study was to identify the predictive value of the religiousness and some social, educational, and sport factors on substance use in 43 sport dancers. An originally developed questionnaire for studying substance use and precipitation factors was applied. The Chi-square showed male dancers as more religious than females. Using the Spearman’s correlation, religiousness was found to be a significant protective factor in cigarette smoking, sport nutritional supplementation, and the likelihood of doping. Data were interpreted emphasizing the previous findings from the literature.     

School Context Protective Factors Against Peer Ethnic Discrimination Across the High School Years

Ethnically diverse high school contexts present unique social opportunities for youth to form interethnic relationships, but they may also subject students to certain social challenges such as peer ethnic discrimination. With a sample of 1,072 high school students (55% girls; 54% Latino, 20% African American, 14% Asian, 12% White) attending 84 high schools, school context factors that protect students’ exposure to peer ethnic discrimination across the high school years were investigated with a three-level hierarchical linear model. Each spring for four consecutive years (grades 9–12), self-reported peer ethnic discrimination, interracial climate at school, and perceived school ethnic composition were assessed. At the school level, objective high school ethnic composition data were collected. Peer ethnic discrimination was found to decline slightly across the high school years. Above and beyond this decline, more positive perceptions of the school interracial climate and both objective and perceived numerical ethnic majority status predicted lower levels of peer ethnic discrimination. Taken together, the results highlight the significance of both objective (e.g., ethnic composition) and subjective (e.g., interracial climate) aspects of the school ethnic context to students’ high school social experiences.     

Childhood Maltreatment and its Effect on Parenting among High-Risk Parents

Research evidence indicates that a childhood history of maltreatment affects parental behaviors in adulthood. The aim of the study was to investigate the predictors for parental behaviors among individuals who reported a history of maltreatment. The current study investigated whether attachment styles, emotional regulation and cognitive appraisals of parenting predicted parental behaviors (positive vs. negative). The study also investigated the differential effects of abuse experiences in childhood (physical, sexual, emotional, and neglect) on parental behaviors. The participants were 213 high-risk Jewish and Arab parents of children aged six and under. Participants completed five self-report questionnaires assessing parental behaviors, childhood experiences of abuse and neglect, attachment styles, emotional regulation, and cognitive appraisal of parenthood. The regression analyses revealed that personal attributes such as ethnicity, childhood experience of emotional abuse/neglect, emotional regulation, and appraisal of parenting, predict negative parental behavior. Anxious attachment and childhood emotional abuse and neglect moderated the impact of parenthood appraisal on parenting behaviors. Although physical and sexual abuse had the highest impact on insecure attachment, emotional abuse/neglect had higher predictive power for non-positive parenting. Clinical interventions for improving the capacity for emotional regulation and parent-child relational skills are suggested.     

Effects of Parenting and Deviant Peers on Early to Mid-Adolescent Conduct Problems

We investigated the influence of effective parenting behaviors (father and mother reports) and deviant peer association (adolescent reports) on subsequent young adolescent conduct problems (teacher reports) during grades 7–9, using structural equation modeling. Data were from a sample of 226 rural adolescents (n?=?112 boys; n?=?107 girls; n?=?7 gender unknown), their parents, and teachers. Both effective parenting and association with deviant peers influenced later conduct problems; however, the pattern of influence varied across time and between fathers and mothers, with complex patterns of interactions between effective parenting and peer deviance. From seventh to eighth grade, effective parenting by both mothers and fathers buffered the effect of higher levels of peer deviance on conduct problems across adolescent gender. From eighth to ninth grade (i.e., transition into high school), fathers’ effective parenting buffered the effects of deviant peer association on their daughters’ conduct problems, whereas both fathers’ and mothers’ influence was stronger for sons when deviant peer associations were lower. Analyses also evaluated bi-directional longitudinal effects among adolescents, parents, and peers. Although varying by parent and adolescent gender or adolescent age, results generally supported the protective effects of parenting on their children’s conduct problems during early to mid adolescence.     

Religiosity as a Substance Use Protective Factor Among Female College Students

Journal of Religion and Health - Research exists about religiosity as a substance use protective factor. However, there is little attention of this issue regarding Israeli female college students....     

Efficacy of a Self-Administered Home-Based Parent Intervention on Parenting Behaviors for Preventing Adolescent Substance Use

A growing body of literature suggests that parenting practices characterized by careful monitoring, firm and consistent limit setting, and nurturing communication patterns with children are protective against adolescent substance use and other problem behaviors. Family-based prevention programs that promote these behaviors can be an effective way to prevent adolescent substance use. However, low participation rates remain problematic for many such programs, particularly programs that require parents to attend scheduled meetings outside the home. The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of a newly developed substance use prevention program when self-administered at home by parents of middle school students. As part of a randomized trial, 338 parents of middle school students either received the parent prevention program or served as control group participants. Parents completed self-report surveys at home that assessed parenting behaviors at pre-test, post-test, and one-year follow-up time points. A series of mixed model ANCOVAs were conducted, examining the post-test and one-year follow-up means for the parent outcomes, controlling for pre-test levels on these outcomes. Analyses showed that at the post-test assessment, intervention parents reported significant increases relative to controls in appropriate role modeling, disciplinary practices, family communication, and parental monitoring skills. At the one-year follow-up assessment, intervention effects on family communication skills remained significant and effects on parental role modeling were marginally significant. This study shows that a theoretically rich prevention program can be effectively self-administered by parents at home and improve key parenting skills that have been shown to prevent adolescent substance use.     

Individual Differences in Substance Preference and Substance Use

Using H. J. Eysenck's (1957, 1967) theory of temperament, this study examined the relationship between drug preference, drug use, and personality among incarcerated inmates. Analysis indicated a general preference for marijuana and alcohol over 8 other commonly used drugs across different personality types. Theoretical and clinical implications are offered.