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Integrating Computerized Linguistic and Social Network Analyses to Capture Addiction Recovery Capital in an Online Community
Published on: May 31, 2019
Young adolescents' perceived activity space risk, peer networks, and substance use
Michael Mason1, Jeremy Mennis2, Thomas Way3
1Department of Psychiatry, Commonwealth Institute for Child & Family Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University, 515 N 10th Street, PO Box 980489, Richmond, VA 23298-0489, United States.
Abstract:
Adolescent substance use is a developmentally contingent social practice that is constituted within the routine social-environment of adolescents' lives. Few studies have examined peer networks, perceived activity space risk (risk of substance use at routine locations), and substance use. We examined the moderating influence of peer network characteristics on the relationship between perceived activity space risk and substance use among a sample of 250 urban adolescents. Significant interactions were found between peer networks and perceived activity space risk on tobacco and marijuana use, such that protective peer networks reduced the effect of activity place risk on substance use. A significant 3-way interaction was found on marijuana use indicating that gender moderated peer network's effect on activity space risk. Conditional effect analysis found that boys' peer networks moderated the effect of perceived activity space risk on marijuana use, whereas for girls, the effect of perceived activity space risk on marijuana use was not moderated by their peer networks. These findings could advance theoretical models to inform social-environmental research among adolescents.
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