Behavioral versus Attitudinal Climates and their effect on Adolescent Substance Use

• In Event: Environmental and Genetic Influences on Substance Use

Abstract

Peer influence remains a significant correlate of adolescents’ substance use. Peers provide opportunities and pressures for adolescents to engage in such behavior—they also contribute to an overall climate (e.g., of schools, neighborhoods) favorable toward and encouraging of use. Even youths’ perceptions about peers’ use and approval of substances influence their own behavior. However, youth are inaccurate in their perceptions of others, projecting their own substance-using behaviors onto peers and/or over-estimating their frequency of deviance. Given this, more robust examinations of peer influence would capture both attitudes and behaviors of peers who shape the climates to which adolescents are exposed. Using data from the 2007 Nebraska Risk and Protective Factor Student Survey, we capture school-level student climates of substance use permissiveness and actual use behaviors. We examine the degree of consistency between adolescents’ overall attitudes and their behaviors, and explore the extent to which both attitudinal and behavioral substance use climates affect individuals’ perceptions about peer use and their own risk of use. Findings suggest that several students experience discrepancy between what they think and do. Further, exposure to discrepant climates is associated with increased individual frequency of use. Thus, attitudes and behaviors need not be consistent to be influential.

Authors

• Courtney Thrash, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

• Tara Warner, University of Nebraska - Lincoln