Context and cognitions: environmental risk, social influence, and adolescent substance use.
This study examined the cognitions thought to mediate the impact of context on adolescent substance use and also the extent to which context moderates the relations between these cognitions and use. Risk cognitions and behaviors were assessed in a panel of 746 African American adolescents (M age 10.5 at Wave 1, 12.2 at Wave 2). Results indicated that adolescents living in high-risk neighborhoods were more inclined toward substance use and more likely to be using at Wave 2. These context effects were mediated by the adolescents' risk cognitions: their risk images, willingness to use, and intentions to use. Also, context moderated the relation between willingness and use (the relation was stronger in high-risk neighborhoods) but it did not moderate the intentions to use relation.
Gibbons
Frederick X
FX
Department of Psychology, Iowa State University, Ames 50011, USA. fgibbons@iastate.edu
Gerrard
Meg
M
Vande Lune
Linda S
LS
Wills
Thomas Ashby
TA
Brody
Gene
G
Conger
Rand D
RD
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012919:Social Behavior; D012931:Social Environment; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*