Drug Use Among Adolescents

The prevalence of drug use among adolescents is a disturbing phenomenon that has been investigated for decades. When adolescents abuse drugs, their lives can be adversely affected (Jenkins & Zunguze, 1998, p. 811; Wynn, Schulenberg, Kloska, & Laetz, 1997, p. 390). In an effort to uncover the underlying causes of this phenomenon, researchers have highlighted peer influence as one of the key factors in determining drug use (Jenkins & Zunguze, 1998, p. 811). Thus, the purpose of this paper is to analyze research articles that examine the relationship between peer influence and drug use among adolescents.

Each of the five research studies that analyze the relationship between drug use among adolescents and peer influence will be discussed separately. The review and evaluation of each research study will cover the hypotheses, the results and limitations of the study.

One of the primary limitations of this paper is the lack of space. Therefore, this paper can only highlight key results of the individual research studies without delving into the statistical approaches and detailed figures. Therefore, the discussions of these results are liable to oversimplify the sophistication and complexity of the research studies.

In addition, the analysis of this paper is also constrained by the limitations of the research studies themselves. Many of the research studies obtain their results based on self-reports. Self-reports

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earchers hypothesized that adolescents from unconventional family structures were more liable to be influenced by their drug-using peers than their counterparts from intact families (p. 811). The results verified the hypothesis and showed that adolescents who came from unconventional family structures tended to have more drug-using friends and/or have friends who accept their drug use. However, the results of this study were limited by the fact that it did not identify the stressors related to unconventional families, which have produced these results (Jenkins, & Zunguze, 1998, p. 812). C. Peer affiliation and drug use among adolescents In their study, Tani, Chavez and Deffenbacher (2001) compared three different groups of adolescents in order to determine the key factors that influence adolescent drug use: Adolescents in drug-using and non-drug-using groups, along with isolated adolescents with no group affiliation. Tani and others (2001) hypothesized that adolescents who were affiliated with non-drug-using peers were less likely to use drugs than adolescents who associated with drug-using peers. Following this logic, isolated adolescents without peer influence would not be expected to engage in drug use at all. However, b

Category: Psychology - D