Longitudinally Foretelling Drug Use in the Late Twenties: Adolescent Personality and Social-Environmental Antecedents |
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Authors: | Judith S Brook Martin Whiteman Stephen Finch Patricia Cohen |
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Institution: | 1. Department of Community and Preventive Medicine , Mount Sinai School of Medicine;2. Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics , State University of New York at Stony Brook;3. Columbia University |
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Abstract: | This research focuses on the interrelation of the parent-child attachment, unconventionality, friends' drug use, and the young adult's use of drugs. Data were collected from participants at 4 points in time: early adolescence, late adolescence, early 20s, and late 20s. Data were collected from mothers at the 3 points in time that corresponded with the first 3 collections of data from their children. Both the youths and their mothers were individually interviewed. The findings indicated that the effect of parent-child mutual attachment was mediated through early adolescent personality attributes of greater responsibility, less rebelliousness, and intolerance of deviance. These non-drug-prone personality and behavioral attitudes, in turn, insulated the young adult from affiliating with drug-using peers, and these attitudes were related to less drug use in the early 20s and ultimately in the late 20s. The results suggest that interventions focused on enhancing parent-child mutual attachment should result in a reduction of the risk factors conducive to drug use during the late 20s. The fact that these findings cover a decade and a half, from early adolescence to the late 20s, underscores the significance of placing drug use in a perspective that includes familial and behavioral aspects. |
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Keywords: | China fear scales fears |
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