Differential associations and definitions: a panel study of youthful drinking behavior

This article reports on a test of selected elements of social learning theory, using a panel of public school students residing in a small southwestern city. Specifically, the drinking habits of 373 middle school and 282 high school students were examined at Time 1 and Time 2, as were changes in their attitudes, orientations, and patterns of drinking. We evaluated the assertions of social learning theory's proponents concerning its processual aspects. The results were largely consistent with the principles of social learning, although the drug-related messages conveyed by both parents and significant-other adults played only minor roles in the process for either group. We found support for the notion that the process of learning to drink is not uniform throughout the secondary school experience. The implications of these findings for social learning theory and drug intervention programs are addressed in this article.