Social Learning and Deviance Abstention: Toward Understanding the Reasons for Initiating, Quitting, and Avoiding Drugs

• NCJ Number: 133761
• Author(s): L T Winfree Jr; C S Sellers
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 39 pages
• Grant Number(s): 87-JN-CX-0013
• Sponsoring Agency: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Research (Theoretical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Paper presented to the annual meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences in Denver, Col., March 13-17, 1990.

Annotation

This study used discriminant analysis to examine the ability of social learning variables to distinguish between drug nonusers, current users, and former users within a sample of 1,686 middle and high school students in two widely separated communities.

Abstract

According to social learning theory, drug users should be distinguishable from nonusers not only in terms of their drug-using behavior but also in drug users' pro-drug peer associations, orientations, and outlooks. The dependent variable in this study was the use of illicit or controlled substances (focus on nonalcoholic drugs). Two sets of independent variables were used in the analysis: personal-biographical and social-learning variables. In the grouped cases, 93 percent of the nonusers and current users wer correctly classified by using the personal-biographical and social-learning variables. The best single predictor of drug use and nonuse was the level of peer use of drugs, followed by differential peer definitions and personal approval. Adding the personal-biographical features yielded very little change in the relative impact of each of these social-learning variables. Social learning variables were not precise in differentiating between former users and nonusers. They were somewhat effective in distinguishing former users from current users. 5 tables and 31 references