title: Friendship Intimacy, Close Friend Drug Use, and Self-Medication in Adolescence.
abstract: The current study examined between- and within-person processes related to friendship intimacy, close-friend substance use, negative affect, and self-medication. We testedbetween-personhypotheses that global negative affect, friendship intimacy, and close-friend drug use predict increased substance use, and thewithin-personhypothesis that friendship intimacy and close-friend substance use moderate the temporal relationship between daily negative affect and subsequent substance use (i.e., self-medication). Experience sampling methodology (ESM) was employed to capture daily variations in mood and substance use, and multilevel modeling techniques were used to parse between- versus within-person differences in risk for use. Findings supported between-person hypotheses that higher levels of negative affect and lower levels of friendship intimacy predicted greater substance use, and a consistent trend indicated that friendship intimacy and close-friend drug use interact to predict substance use more generally (though not for self-medication). Risk and protective mechanisms emerged from this interaction such that the effect of friendship intimacy on adolescent use depends on the degree of close-friend drug use. More specific reformulations of the risk processes involving friendships and self-medication among younger youth are indicated.
authors.affiliation: The University of Maryland at College Park, Center for Addictions, Personality, and Emotion Research, Cole Activities Building Suite 2103-D, College Park, MD 20742, United States.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shadur
authors.affiliation: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB#3270 Davie Hall, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, United States.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hussong
keywords: adolescence; friendship; negative affect; quantitative methods; self-medication; substance use