Psychosocial correlates of substance use: comparing high school students with incarcerated offenders in Hong Kong.
Drug use prevalence data were obtained from 969 adolescents, high school students and imprisoned offenders who reported use of cough medicine, organic solvents, cannabis, heroin, tranquilizers, and narcotics over the past six months. Incarcerated youths, in particular girls, had higher prevalence rates than students. Drug use frequencies were associated with psychosocial variables such as disinhibition, peer drug use, susceptibility to peer pressure, attitudes, encouragement by peers, and perceived availability of drugs. The psychosocial process of the initiation and maintenance of substance use was specified as a path model that considered 1) personality and social environment as distal precursors and 2) a drug-use predisposition and perceived availability as proximal precursors of three kinds of outcome variables: drug use, the intention to try illicit drugs if they were legal, and adverse outcomes of drug use. It was found that the same structural equation model fit the data of both samples of offenders and students, however, with very different weights assigned to the paths.
Wong
C S
CS
Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Tang
C S
CS
Schwarzer
R
R
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002188:Cannabis; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D003932:Heroin; D006723:Hong Kong / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D015233:Models, Statistical; D010379:Peer Group; D015995:Prevalence; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012940:Social Problems; D012997:Solvents; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014149:Tranquilizing Agents
D012997:Solvents; D014149:Tranquilizing Agents; D003932:Heroin