Negative Social Sanctions, Self-rejection, and Drug Use

• NCJ Number: 135827
• Journal: Youth and Society Volume: 23 Issue: 3 Dated: (March 1992) Pages: 275-298
• Author(s): H B Kaplan; H Fukurai
• Date Published: 1992
• Length: 24 pages
• Grant Number(s): R01-DA-20497; R01-DA-04310
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Health and Human Services
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

All seventh-grade students in a randomly selected 18 of the 36 junior high schools in Houston were surveyed in March-April 1971, 1972, and 1973 to determine the relationship between self-esteem, drug abuse, and being punished or receiving other negative social sanctions.

Abstract

A total of 7,618 youths completed a 209-item structured, self-administered questionnaire during the first survey period, and 1,925 youths completed all three surveys. The group who completed only the first survey and the group completing all the surveys were compared with respect to punishments by 1971, their attitudes in 1972, and their tendency toward deviance and association with deviant peers in 1973. Results supported a model suggesting that negative social sanctions produce self-rejection, which in turn increases the later tendency toward deviance and drug abuse. Thus, findings support the theoretical premises derived from labeling theory. Table, figure, notes, and 30 references