Suchergebnisse

Psychosocial factors are the principle determinants of youth drug abuse. Among those factors, the most important direct influence on drug use is that of the peer cluster: "gangs," best friends, or couples. Other psychosocial characteristics, however, set the stage for this involvement with drug-using peer clusters. Social characteristics that influence drug use in this way include the community, socioeconomic status, neighborhood environments, family, religion, and the school. Psychological characteristics tend to have only low correlations with drug use, but there is some influence on peer clusters from traits such as self-esteem, depression, anxiety, and introversion, particularly when these lead to anger. Implications for prevention and treatment are considered.

This paper relates psychosocial correlates to prevention. Young native American heavy alcohol users (ages 12 to 16) were matched with non-users. Alcohol users did not have more emotional problems, did not experience less alienation, or did not feel less self-confident or less socially accepted than non-users, but did use other drugs and were more deviant. Alcohol users came more often from broken families, felt less family caring and had fewer family sanctions against substance use, had poorer school adjustment, had less hope for the future, and had friends encouraging alcohol and drug use. Prevention programs should start very early and should focus on increasing family strength, improving school adjustment, providing opportunities for the future, breaking up deviant peer clusters and building peer clusters that discourage alcohol and drug use.