Department of Sociology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 711 Oldfather Hall, Lincoln, NE, 68588-0324, USA.
J Youth Adolesc. 2016 Aug;45(8):1587-603. doi: 10.1007/s10964-016-0444-z. Epub 2016 Feb 22.
The existing research on risk factors for adolescent substance use highlights the importance of peers' direct influence on risky behaviors, yet two key limitations persist. First, there is considerably less attention to the ways in which peers shape overall (e.g., school-level) normative climates of attitudes and expectations about substance use, and, second, the role of the broader geographic contexts in which these climates are embedded is essentially neglected. In light of shifting trends in geographic differences in adolescent substance use, the current study uses data from the 2007 Nebraska Risk and Protective Factor Student Survey (n = 26,647; 80 % non-Hispanic White; 51 % female) to (a) explore whether geographic context shapes the character (permissiveness) and consistency (homogeneity) of normative climates and (b) examine the consequences (effects) of such climates on adolescent substance use risk across the rural-urban continuum. Normative climates are a consistent predictor of substance use, yet the geographic context in which schools are located matters for both the nature and influence of these climates, and the patterns differ between normative climates about alcohol and marijuana. These findings illustrate that school normative climates do indeed matter for substance use behavior, and the ways in which they do depend on their broader, geographic context. Thus, future research on youth's substance use should be attuned to these more nuanced distinctions.
现有关于青少年物质使用风险因素的研究强调了同伴对危险行为的直接影响的重要性，但仍存在两个关键的局限性。首先，对于同伴如何塑造关于物质使用的整体（例如，学校层面）规范态度和期望的氛围，关注较少；其次，这些氛围所嵌入的更广泛的地理背景的作用基本上被忽视了。鉴于青少年物质使用的地理差异趋势的变化，本研究利用了 2007 年内布拉斯加州风险和保护因素学生调查的数据（n=26647；80%非西班牙裔白人；51%女性），以探究地理背景是否会影响规范氛围的特征（宽容度）和一致性（同质性），以及此类氛围对农村-城市连续体中青少年物质使用风险的影响。规范氛围是物质使用的一个一致预测因素，但学校所在的地理环境对这些氛围的性质和影响都很重要，而且关于酒精和大麻的规范氛围之间存在模式差异。这些发现表明，学校规范氛围确实会影响物质使用行为，而它们的影响方式取决于更细微的地理背景差异。因此，未来关于青少年物质使用的研究应该关注这些更细微的差异。
