A Cross-Cultural Test of Social Structure and Social Learning: Alcohol Use among South Korean Adolescents

The main purpose of this study is to test the validity and cross-cultural generalizability of Akers’ Social Structure and Social Learning (SSSL) model of crime and deviance. The test is done with data on substance use behavior among adolescents in South Korea utilizing a sample of 1,021 high school students. The data are taken from (1) a self-report survey of 1,021 high school students in Busan, South Korea and (2) district (Gu) level census reports of Busan. We consider this a test of the full SSSL model because we have at least one measure of all of the four main explanatory concepts found in social learning theory (differential association, definition, differential reinforcement, and imitation) and of all four of the social structural components of SSSL (differential social organization, differential location in the social structure, theoretically defined structural causes of crime, and differential social location in groups). The principal hypothesis is that the effects of the measures of social structure on adolescent deviance (substance use) will be substantially mediated by the measures of the social learning variables. To test this hypothesis multi-level data are analyzed in several Hierarchal Linear Models. The social learning variables are found to substantially mediate the effects of social structural components on adolescents’ alcohol use. Therefore, the study provides additional evidence supportive of SSSL and evidence that it applies not only in the United States but also is generalizable to a non-Western society. The contributions, limitations, and implications of the study for future research are presented.