and Supportive Social Relationships

The current study examined the impact of supportive social relationships (i.e., teacher support, adult support, school relatedness) and peer victimiza-tion on middle school students ’ substance use. Over 3,000 middle school students reported on alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use, supportive social relationships, and instances in which they were the victim of aggressive be-havior. Mixed-effects logit regression analyses revealed complementary pat-terns of results across types of substances. Students who perceived high levels of social support were less likely to report alcohol and drug use initia-tion, particularly at low levels of peer victimization. Gender moderated the negative effect of peer victimization, with highly victimized boys most likely to report alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use. Results indicated a complex at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on September 11, 2016jea.sagepub.comDownloaded from 2 Journal of Early Adolescence XX(X) interplay of social influences and moderating variables in predicting early onset alcohol and other drug use, one that researchers should consider when studying adolescents ’ decisions to use alcohol and other drugs. Keyword