The Historical Contingency of Becoming a Marijuana (and Alcohol) User

• In Event: 477 - Section on Crime, Law, and Deviance Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 14. Substance Use

Abstract

This paper argues for researchers to take seriously historical context when looking at predictors of deviance. The analysis of historical context is especially important for social learning theory: Not only are different definitions taught but from where and the way definitions are learned changes over time. This paper uses the relationships between religiosity, political orientation and educational commitment on marijuana and alcohol use as examples of how relationships change depending on the historical context under examination. Data was gathered from the 1976 to 1996 monitoring the future series. A series of cross-sectional logistic regression models and a ‘relational distribution analysis’ were used to examine within and between institution changes in the relevance of statistical relationships over time. It is shown that the relationships between political orientation and drug use changed after Reagan’s presidential election due to a within institution change: a decline in drug use among liberals. It is also shown that the relationships between religion and alcohol use changed after the Federal Uniform Drinking Age Act of 1984 due to a between institution change: a decline relative to other institutions (especially educational commitment).

Author

• Jarrett Alan Thibodeaux, Vanderbilt University