A66.
Donohew, R., Hoyle, R., Clayton, R., Skinner, W., Colon, S. & Rice,
R. E. (1999). Sensation seeking and drug use by adolescents and
their
friends: Models for marijuana and alcohol. Journal of Studies
on Alcohol, 60(5), 622-631.
Objective: To investigate the prospective
influence of
individual
adolescents’ sensation seeking tendency and the sensation seeking
tendency
of named peers on the use of alcohol and marijuana, controlling for a
variety
of interpersonal and attitudinal risk and protective factors.
Method:
Data were collected from a cohort of adolescents (N = 428; 60% female)
at three points in time, starting in the eighth grade. Respondents
provided
information about sensation seeking, the positivity of family
relations,
attitudes toward alcohol and drug use, perceptions of their friends’
use
of alcohol and marijuana, perceptions of influence by their friends to
use alcohol and marijuana, and their own use of alcohol and marijuana.
In addition, they named up to three peers, whose sensation seeking and
use data were integrated with respondents' data to allow for tests of
hypotheses
about peer clustering and substance use. Results: Structural
equation
modeling analyses revealed direct effects of peers’ sensation seeking
on
adolescents’ own use of both marijuana and alcohol 2 years later. An
unexpected
finding was that the individual’s own sensation seeking had indirect
(not
direct) effects on drug use 2 years later. Conclusions:
These findings
indicate the potential importance of sensation seeking as a
characteristic
on which adolescent peers cluster. Furthermore, the findings indicate
that,
beyond the influence of a variety of other risk factors, peer sensation
seeking contributes to adolescents’ substance use.
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