The changing influences of self-worth and peer deviance on drinking problems in urban American Indian adolescents

Psychol Addict Behav. 2006 Jun;20(2):161-70. doi: 10.1037/0893-164X.20.2.161.

Abstract

This study explored the changing relations among self-worth, peer deviance, and alcohol-related problems in a sample of 224 urban-dwelling, American Indian adolescents. Data were collected annually at 7 time points to test a proposed mediational model. As expected, peer deviance mediated the relation between low self-worth and alcohol-related problems in younger adolescents; however, this relation did not hold as participants became older. In older adolescents, low self-worth and peer deviance directly and independently contributed to alcohol problems. Possible explanations for and implications of these findings are discussed in terms of developmental changes during adolescence.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Alcohol Drinking*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Indians, North American / ethnology*
  • Male
  • Peer Group*
  • Self Concept*
  • Substance-Related Disorders / epidemiology
  • Substance-Related Disorders / ethnology*
  • Urban Population*
  • Washington / epidemiology