Understanding Effects of Employment on Alcohol Use: A Cross-Sectional Perspective

• In Event: Peers, Peer Groups, and Delinquency

Abstract

This paper presents findings from a study examining predictors of alcohol use among adolescents in the United States. Using multiple waves of publicly available secondary data, the project assesses the influence of key factors in predicting alcohol use and binge drinking among high school seniors. Specifically, the study focuses on the relationship between employment and these behaviors, incorporating the influence of peer alcohol use. Potentially confounding factors including family and school bonds, religion, and demographic factors are incorporated to appropriately understand the consistently observed positive relationship between employment and deviance among adolescents. By examining alcohol use and binge drinking separately, the project treats these behaviors empirically as exclusive outcomes. The study tests the influence of peer alcohol use in the employment-deviance relationship over time using cross-sectional waves of data in the context of alcohol use and binge drinking. The method establishes an understanding of not only trends in these behaviors, but also trends in the influence of the predictors over time. The study furthers literature concerning predictors of alcohol use and binge drinking as well as the employment-deviance relationship among adolescents. The modeling strategy contributes to scholarship concerning these behaviors and studying their effects in aggregate over time.

Author

• Rusty Patrick Schnellinger, Kent State University