Influence of Peers, Parents, and Individual Characteristics on Adolescent Drug Use in Two Cultures

The longitudinal influence of close friends, parents, and individual characteristics on adolescent drug use was assessed for seventh, ninth, and eleventh graders. The proposed structural equation model fit well for three cultures: European American, African American, and Chinese adolescents. The data provide support for similarity across cultures in the association of high adolescent sensation seeking and low authoritative parenting with higher rates of adolescent drug use. Also, as hypothesized, even after controlling for initial friend drug use (selection effects), adolescent sensation seeking, and parental authoritativeness, the close friend had a moderate influence effect on adolescent substance use. However, this finding applied only to Chinese and European American adolescents. Implications for prevention programming and research are discussed