Middle schoolers who socialize with friends engaged in risky or deviant behaviors are more likely to use alcohol, tobacco, or drugs early, but increased parental monitoring mediates this effect, according to a recent study.
“The peer selection pathway describes how children who use or intend to use alcohol, tobacco, or drugs select peers who will facilitate alcohol, tobacco, or drug use,” reported Thomas J. Schofield, Ph.D., of Iowa State University, Ames, and his associates. “In contrast, the peer socialization pathway describes how children with deviant peers become more likely to use alcohol, tobacco, or drugs because of peer influence. In the current investigation, we found support for both of these pathways over time among a sample of Mexican-origin children,” they wrote (Drug Alcohol Depend. 2015 Dec 1;157:129-35).
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The researchers tracked 674 California fifth graders, all of Mexican origin, for 2 years, collecting data during fifth and seventh grades on the kids’ social relationships, their intent to use alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs, and their use of those substances in the previous year. Families were also video-recorded during a 20-minute structured interaction task between the mother and child and, if possible, father and child, at the fifth grade assessment so trained observers could rate parents’ interactions with their children.
“The monitoring variable was operationalized as the degree to which parents accurately track the behaviors, activities, and social involvements of the child, as well as parents’ specific knowledge about the child’s life and activities,” the researchers wrote.
Questions about social relationships specifically asked the children how many of their friends engaged in various risky or deviant behaviors, such as using alcohol to get drunk, hanging out with a gang, and using substances to get high.
In fifth grade, less than 1% of the kids had tried cigarettes, and 92% had no intention of doing so; 3.4% had tried beer while 89.6% had no plans to use alcohol. No children reported trying street drugs in fifth grade, and 93.2% reported no intention of doing so. Similarly high numbers of kids had no intentions of smoking or using drugs or alcohol in seventh grade.
No data emerged to suggest children’s gender or generational status influenced their substance use, and the proportion of children interacting with deviant peers, intending to use substances or already using substances remained stable from fifth to seventh grades. However, interaction with deviant peers increased kids’ likelihood of using substances or intending to.
“Despite almost no use or intent to use alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs in fifth grade, adolescents who did entertain the idea of using alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs over the next year were already more likely to be associating with deviant peers in fifth grade,” the authors wrote. But analyses of parent interactions revealed that “parental monitoring significantly moderated the pathway from deviant peers in fifth grade to later alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use as well as the pathway from alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use in fifth grade to later associations with deviant peers.”
The only personality feature that reduced children’s likelihood of socializing with deviant peers was being shy. Parents’ use of alcohol predicted an increase in children’s alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use.
Parental monitoring may reduce kids’ likelihood of using substances because a close relationship may help the child identify with the parent values more or children may have fewer opportunities to use with closer monitoring, the authors propose.
The research was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The authors reported no disclosures.