Do adolescent delinquency and problem drinking share psychosocial risk factors? A literature review (original) (raw)
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In the past two decades, self-control theory was widely tested, with ample empirical support that individual levels of self-control predict delinquency. The current study focused on social factors that condition the expression of self-control as delinquency-with specific attention given to the role of an adolescent's level of social attachments to adults. Concerning the type of delinquency, this study focused on applying established criminological theories to the issue of problematic drinking among adolescents. Using the Add Health survey of American adolescents, empirical tests supported the hypothesized conditioning effect of social attachments regarding the influence of self-control on problematic drinking. These findings suggest that theoretically and empirically addressing how social factors influence the expression of individual propensities could offer insight into the relationship between self-control and delinquency.
Social and coping reasons for drinking: Predicting alcohol misuse in adolescents
1999
Objective: Motivational models of alcohol consumption suggest a positive relationship between reasons for drinking and the amount of alcohol consumed. The present study examined race, gender, and age as moderators of the relationship between social and coping motives and alcohol misuse in black and white adolescents. Method: A representative population sample (N = 699) of male and female (54%) adolescents between the ages of 13 and 16 was recruited using a random-digit-dial telephone procedure. Six face-to-face interviews with subjects and their families were carded out at approximately yearly intervals. Information gathered assessed alcohol use, social and coping motives for drinking, and psychological distress. Results: Multiple analyses, including both cross-sectional and longitudinal logistic regression analyses and survival analysis were used to examine the relationship of drinking motives to adolescent alcohol misuse. Contrary to our predictions, social motive was a somewhat better predictor of alcohol misuse than was coping motive, particularly during mid-to late adolescence. However, there was some limited evidence of a significant relationship between coping motives and alcohol misuse in the mid-adolescent age group. Some support was found for racial differences such that social motives are better predictors of alcohol misuse among whites than among blacks and coping motives are better predictors among blacks. Few gender differences were found in the relationship of drinking motives and alcohol misuse. Conclusions: These findings suggest a stronger tendency for social and coping motives to influence alcohol misuse during mid to late than in early adolescence.
Journal of Child & Adolescent Substance Abuse, 2017
Social problem solving has been associated with alcohol use in adolescents, but has not been examined within the context of well-established risk factors, such as childhood conduct problems, parental history of alcohol use, association with deviant peers, and behavior undercontrol. This study surveyed 120, 18-year-old first-year college students to examine whether poor social problem solving is a risk factor for adolescent alcohol use above and beyond the other well-established risk factors and to examine whether social problem solving is a moderator between behavior undercontrol and alcohol use in adolescents. Hierarchical multiple regressions found that social problem solving was not a significant risk factor above and beyond well-established risk factors for adolescent alcohol use. Furthermore, social problem solving was not a significant moderator between behavior undercontrol and adolescent alcohol use. The results also indicated that association with deviant peers and family income accounted for significant variance in adolescent alcohol use, suggesting association with deviant peers and family income are the risk factors that are most strongly related to adolescent alcohol use.
Alcohol self-control behaviors of adolescents
Addictive Behaviors, 2007
Purpose: The aims of the present study were to: (1) factor analyze a 13-item adolescent alcohol self-control behavior scale, (2) examine associations between frequency of self-control behavior use and alcohol consumption, and (3) to determine which self-control behaviors best predict alcohol use and consequences. Methods: A confidential standardized survey was used to collect data on participant's 30-day frequency, quantity, and heavy use of alcohol; alcohol-related consequences; and alcohol self-control behaviors. Results: A principal component factor analysis produced the following three components: Healthy Alternatives (α = .81), Self-regulation (α = .72), and Assertive Communication (α = .73). MANOVAs indicated strong associations between frequency of use of the three types of self-control behaviors and alcohol consumption (p values ≤ .001). Logistic regression analysis revealed that Self-regulation behaviors were the best predictor for all alcohol use measures and consequences (p values ≤ .001). Conclusion: Self-control behaviors differ in their ability to predict alcohol use and consequences. Self-regulation strategies emerged as the most consistent predictor of alcohol use patterns and consequences among adolescents, followed by Healthy Alternatives.
Risk and Protective Factors for Problematic Drinking in Early Adolescence: A Systematic Approach
Child Psychiatry & Human Development
Alcohol use during early adolescence is associated with other risk behaviors as well as future health problems. Within the design of a larger prospective research program, a cohort of U.S. inner-city sixth-grade students (N = 1573, mean age = 12.10) were assessed and reassessed in the seventh-grade. Self-reported information was obtained on problems related to alcohol, fixed markers of risk (e.g. sex, age, SES), individual and interpersonal factors (e.g. internalizing and externalizing symptoms) and contextual factors (e.g. substance availability). Alcohol-related problems in seventh grade were foremost predicted by individual and interpersonal factors in the sixth grade including depressive symptoms, conduct problems, a decreased perception of wrongdoing, and affiliation with delinquent peers. In addition, alcohol use in the sixth grade and being of Hispanic or White ethnicity was also associated with subsequent alcohol-related problems. Interventions should be directed towards assessing and treating individual risk factors such as depression and externalizing symptoms.
A SYNTHESIS OF TWO DISTINCT RESEARCH METHODS WAS USED TO INVESTIGATE THE EXTENTTO WHICH RHODES & JASON'S (1988) SOCIAL STRESS MODEL, OLSON'S ET.AL. (1985) FAMILY COHESION AND ADAPTABILITY THEORY AND THE SELF-EFFICACY CONSTRUCT (LAWRANCE, 1988) WERE ASSOCIATED WITH ADOLESCENT DRINKING BEHAVIOUR. TWO STUDIES WERECARRIED OUT, ONE QUALITATIVE AND ONE QUANTITATIVE, BASED ON THE RESPONSES OFA NON-RANDOM SAMPLE OF 60 AND 238 ADOLESCENTS RESPECTIVELY. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ABSTAINERS, DRINKERS AND OCCASIONAL DRINKERS WERE INVESTIGATED. NO SIGNIFICANT GENDER DIFFERENCES WERE IDENTIFIED IN BOTH STUDIES, IN REGARD TO DRINKING PRACTICES REPORTED BY ADOLESCENTS THEMSELVES. ANALYSES OF THE DATA IN THE QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE STUDY REVEAL THAT FAMILY INTERACTIONAL PATTERNS, LOCUS-OF-CONTROL, SELF-EFFICACY, PEER DRINKING AND PEER PRESSURE TO DRINK ACCOUNTED FOR THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DRINKERS, ABSTAINERS AND OCCASIONAL DRINKERS. INCONTRAST, THE THREE GROUPS DID NOT DIFFER SIGNIFICANTLY IN SELF-ESTEEM, KNOWLEDGE, SOCIAL ANXIETY, SOCIAL SUPPORT AND ABILITY TO RESIST PRESSURE TO DRINK. THE FINDINGS ARE INTERESTING IN FOCUSING ON THE FACT THAT DRINKERS DIFFER SIGNIFICANTLY IN A VARIETY OF MEASURES FROM OCCASIONAL DRINKERS AND NOT JUST FROM ABSTAINERS. IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH ARE DISCUSSED.
Differential Associations and Definitions: A Panel Study of Youthful Drinking Behavior
Substance Use & Misuse, 1990
This article reports on a test of selected elements of social learning theory, using a panel of public school students residing in a small southwestern city. Specifically, the drinking habits of 373 middle school and 282 high school students were examined at Time 1 and Time 2, as were changes in their attitudes, orientations and patterns of drinking. We evaluated the assertions of social learning theory's proponents concerning its processual aspects. The results were largely consistent with the principles of social learni ng, although the drug-rel ated messages conveyed by both parents and significant other adults played only minor rOleS;,.l the process for either group. We found support for the notion that the process of learning to drink is not uniform throughout the secondary school experience. The implications • of these findings for social learning theory and drug intervention programs are addressed in the article.
The Social Ecology of Adolescent Alcohol Misuse
Child Development, 2008
A conceptual framework based on social ecology, social learning, and social control theories guided identification of social contexts, contextual attributes, and joint effects that contribute to development of adolescent alcohol misuse. Modeling of alcohol use, suggested by social learning theory, and indicators of the social bond, suggested by social control theory, were examined in the family, peer, school, and neighborhood contexts. Interactions between alcohol modeling and social bond indicators were tested within and between contexts. Data were from a longitudinal study of 6,544 students, 1,663 of their parents, and the U.S. Census. All contexts were uniquely implicated in development of alcohol misuse from ages 11 through 17 years and most alcohol modeling effects were contingent on attributes of social bonds.
Protective Influences on the Negative Consequences of Drinking Among Youth
Youth & Society, 2010
The prevention of underage drinking and related outcomes focuses on strengthening protective factors. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 3,862), the authors examine the effects of protective factors from three domains of adolescents' lives (individual, familial, and extrafamilial) on experiencing negative consequences of alcohol use, while controlling for relevant risk factors, among youth who have already started drinking. Results showed that protective factors had relatively little influence on not experiencing negative alcohol-related consequences, regardless of social context. One individual protective factor, strategic decision making, was related to negative drinking outcomes in cross-sectional models. In longitudinal models, maternal attachment reduced the likelihood of experiencing negative outcomes over time. The effects of the risk factors remained strong in all models. Findings suggest "mixed-methods" preventive approaches, attending to risk factors, and including strategies to strengthen protective factors across multiple domains of adolescents' lives when striving to affect negative drinking-related outcomes.