Role-Taking, Stress & Support: An Interactionist Perspective on Adolescent Substance Use - CANCELLED

• In Event: Lightning Talk: Youth, Crime, and Justice

Abstract

Existing research demonstrates the relative empirical validity of popular criminological theories on adolescent substance use, such as social learning and social control theories. Arguably, the understanding of such deviant behavior is best explored using a broad perspective rooted in symbolic interactionism given its specification of additional key constructs and consideration of both normative and deviant aspects of social life. Accordingly, the current study examines the social psychological processes that contribute to adolescent use of licit (e.g., cigarettes, alcohol) and illicit (e.g., heroin, cocaine) substances. Using a large nationally representative sample of adolescents aged 12-17 years old from the 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, this study empirically tests a blended hybrid theoretical framework based in symbolic interactionism, drawing heavily on key concepts from differential social control theory (Heimer and Matsueda 1994). This paradigm is informed by the sociology of mental health literature and expanded by considering the roles of stress and social support on the social psychological processes of adolescent drug use. Results are discussed relative to existing research, as well as whether micro-level processes of social interaction and meaning making account for the effects of social structural factors on youth drug use.

Author

• Sarah Elizabeth Malone, University of Iowa