Family, School, and Peer Influences on Alcohol Use / Abuse Among American Indian and White Female Adolescents

• In Event: Delinquency, Deviance, and Victimization among Students in the United States and Switzerland

Abstract

The present analysis is based on survey data collected during four academic years (2009 to 2013) from students in 27 school districts from five US regions (Northwest, Northern Plains, Upper Great Lakes, Southeast & Texas, and Southwest). The study includes only female students age 13 or older who identified themselves as American Indian or White (N = 2,534). Results show that when compared to the white adolescents in the sample, American Indian teenage girls are significantly less likely to use and abuse alcohol. In both subsamples, definitions favorable to alcohol use, association with peers who are frequent alcohol users, peers’ differential reinforcement of alcohol use, and perceived parental lack of concern regarding students' alcohol consumption are significant predictors of alcohol use and abuse, while living with both biological parents and perceived peer rejection significantly decrease the incidence of alcohol use. Nonetheless, attachment to school in the White subsample and parental monitoring in the American Indian subsample have significant deterrent effects on female students’ alcohol use and abuse, suggesting that family and school can safeguard female adolescents from peers’ negative influences, or at least diminish their impact, on young girls’ delinquent behavior.

Authors

• Paula Redman, University of Louisville

• Viviana Andreescu, University of Louisville