A79.
Rice, R.E., Donohew, L., & Clayton, R. (2003). Peer
network,
sensation seeking, and drug use among junior and senior high school
students.
Connections, 25(2), 5-19.
This study argues that both biological and social factors
are strong influences on use of drugs by adolescents and teenagers,
and,
further, that these factors may interact. Thus, both biological
and
social factors offer avenues for targeting prime at-risk groups and
designing
messages and programs to reach them. The biological factor
explored
here is sensation-seeking, and the social factor explored is the
attitudes,
behaviors, and sensation-seeking of respondents’ named peers.
These
factors are included in a longitudinal structural model that is tested
over three cohorts of an average of 1900 junior- and high-school
students,
each measured at three successive grades. Both one’s own
sensation-seeking,
and peer influence (drug use, sensation-seeking), along with prior drug
use, are the main predictors of specific drug use at the end of the
periods.
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