The communicative process of drug resistance among high school students

This article reports the results of the second of two studies designed to examine social influences on adolescents' responses to drug offers. In the first study, a typology of both drug offers and drug resistance strategies was developed. The present study provides an analysis of the associations between offers and resistance and the differences between drug and alcohol offers. To accomplish this, sixty-nine narrative accounts of both successful and unsuccessful attempts to say no were collected from high school students. Analysis of the interviews indicated that peer pressure was applied in approximately 70% of the offers; however, much of that pressure was applied after the initial offer had been refused. It also was determined that simple offers were more likely with alcohol, while drug offers were more likely to be persuasive and involve pressure during the initial offer.