Perception of friends' use of alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana among urban schoolchildren: A longitudinal analysis

• Published in: Addictive behaviors Vol. 21; no. 5; pp. 615 - 632
• Main Authors: Iannotti, Ronald J., Bush, Patricia J., Weinfurt, Kevin P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.09.1996; New York, NY Elsevier
• Subjects: Addictive behaviors; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; African Americans - statistics & numerical data; Age Factors; Alcohol Drinking - epidemiology; Alcohol Drinking - psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Chi-Square Distribution; Child; Cross-Sectional Studies; Drug addiction; Family Health; Female; Humans; Likelihood Functions; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Marijuana Smoking - epidemiology; Marijuana Smoking - psychology; Medical sciences; Models, Psychological; Multivariate Analysis; Odds Ratio; Peer Group; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Regression Analysis; Sampling Studies; Smoking - epidemiology; Smoking - psychology; Social Control, Informal; Social Perception; Substance-Related Disorders - epidemiology; Substance-Related Disorders - etiology; Urban Health; Human; Consumption; Social perception; Peer relation; Attitude; Cigarette; Alcoholic beverage; School age; Follow up study; Social interaction; Marihuana; Family environment; Child
• ISSN: 0306-4603; 1873-6327
• DOI: 10.1016/0306-4603(95)00086-0

Relations between adolescents' substance use and perceptions of their friends' substance use were examined cross-sectionally and longitudinally in a predominantly African-American school district. Fourth- and fifth-grade students were surveyed and tracked for 4 consecutive years. Cross-sectional samples included 3,073, 5,955, 7,701, and 6,616 students in years 1 to 4, respectively; the longitudinal sample included 1,802 students surveyed in every year. Self-reported substance use of friends and classmates also was assessed. Perceived friends' substance use had a stronger association with prior substance use than friends' selfreported substance use in every year. Perceived family use and classmates' self-reported use also made independent contributions to regression models. Longitudinal structural equation analyses indicated that perceived friends' use is more likely to be a product of an adolescent's previous substance use than a precursor of subsequent substance use. The findings contradict prevailing theories on the influence of peers on substance use.