Poster #227 - Does Body Image Moderate the Relationship Between Friends’ Delinquent Behavior and Substance Use?

• In Event: 2-110 - Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Section - Social Relationships

Integrative Statement

Peers are an important social context for adolescents; association with delinquent friends is linked to adolescent substance use, including the use of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana (Palmqvist, & Santavirta, 2006; Kiesner, Poulin, & Dishion, 2010). Low body satisfaction, or a greater discrepancy between ideal and perceived appearance, is also a risk factor for substance use (Black et al., 2010; Holshauer, Zenner & Wilfert, 2016). For example, dieting and weight concerns are associated with a greater likelihood of smoking tobacco in adolescents, and low body satisfaction is also linked more alcohol consumption (Gearhardt, Waller, Jester, Hyde, & Zucker, 2018; Holzhauer, Zenner, & Wulfert 2016). However, little research has explored the combined roles of body satisfaction and delinquent friends in adolescent substance use. Building on the literature describing differential susceptibility to negative peer influences (e.g., Mrug & Windle, 2009), it is possible that youth with low body satisfaction are more vulnerable to peer influences on substance use. To address this question, this study examined whether body satisfaction moderated the relationship between friends’ delinquent behavior and adolescents’ use of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana. We hypothesized that adolescents with low body satisfaction will be more susceptible to negative peer influences on substance use.
Adolescents (N = 590, 51.9% male, 76.4% Black, Mage = 13.4 years) reported on their alcohol, marijuana, and cigarette use, as well as body image and friends’ delinquency. Substance use was assessed with a dichotomous question for use in the past 12 months. Low body satisfaction was indicated by greater discrepancy between their self-reported current body shape and ideal body shape. Friends’ delinquency was assessed as a percentage of a participants’ close friends who engaged in various delinquent behaviors. Logistic regression analyses predicted the use of each substance for friends’ delinquency, body satisfaction, and their interaction, controlling for child age, gender, and ethnicity. Significant interactions were followed with simple slopes analyses at high and low body satisfaction levels.
Results from the logistic regression analyses indicated that youth with more delinquent friends consumed more alcohol (OR = 1.05, p < .001); however, body satisfaction moderated this relationship (OR = 0.97, p = .008). Follow-up simple slopes analyses showed the relationship between friends’ delinquency and alcohol was stronger for adolescents with low body satisfaction (OR= 1.07, p < .001) than those with high body satisfaction (OR = 1.03, p = .001). Friends’ delinquent behavior and body satisfaction did not predict cigarette or marijuana use. Future research should consider how friends’ delinquency and low body satisfaction jointly relate to substance use over time, and if these relationships differ for males and females.

Authors

• Autumn Makayla Murrey, University of Alabama at Birmingham
  Presenting Author

• Jonathan Adams, University of Alabama at Birmingham
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sylvie Mrug, University of Alabama at Birmingham
  Non-Presenting Author