The Impact of Environmental Factors, Expectations, and Support on Adolescent Drug Use

• Activity Number: 423
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Tuesday, July 31, 2012 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Social Statistics Section
• Author(s): Simone Robers*+ and Samantha Neiman
• Companies: American Institutes for Research and American Institutes for Research
• Keywords: Drug Abuse ; Adolescents ; Environment ; Expectations ; Support System

Abstract

Drug use among adolescents and the availability and distribution of drugs at schools remains a prominent issue in the US as recently highlighted in a study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA), which reported that three-fourths of high school students (75.6 percent) have used addictive substances including cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana or cocaine (CASA, 2011). This research effort examines drug use among students ages 12-17 based on most recently available data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH 2010) sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Using this source, three scales are created to measure environmental factors, expectations (parental, peer, self), and support, as reported by the students. The relationships between adolescent drug use (e.g., alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, heroin) and those factors will be examined. The preferred methods of analysis are t-tests and ANOVAs, using SAS statistical software. The goal of this research is to identify factors related to the student's experience that differ based on the students reported frequency of drug use.