Shifting Social Ties: How High School Friendship Stability Influences Early Adulthood Substance Use

• In Event: Network Criminology I: Social Networks and Substance Use

Abstract

Friends’ engagement in substance use is one of the most consistent predictors of adolescents’ alcohol, tobacco, and other substance use behaviors. However, previous research has not fully examined how this association progresses through early adulthood, and little is known about whether friendship stability impacts patterns over time. Using data from 1,809 participants in the PROSPER study, we analyze how high school friendships with peers who previously used alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, and other illicit drugs influence respondents’ substance use in early adulthood. Results show that high school friends’ substance use continues to correlate with individuals’ behaviors in early adulthood. However, additional analyses demonstrate that these patterns only hold for young people who maintain stable friendships to high school peers with a self-reported history of substance use. Respondents who sever these friendships are no more likely to drink, smoke, or use other substances in early adulthood than peers who never had friends that engaged in these risky behaviors. The findings highlight the potential for young adults to mitigate negative peer influence from adolescence by restructuring their social connections after high school.

Authors

• Kaley Jones, Northeastern University

• Cassie McMillan, Northeastern University

• Wade C. Jacobsen, University of Maryland

• Nayan Ramirez, California State University, Northridge