Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Reducing Social Stress in Urban Adolescents with Peer Network Counseling

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Child and Family Studies Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Increased social stress in the context of peer interactions is associated with multiple negative health outcomes, including substance use. Addressing social stress could provide protective effects for adolescents who are particularly vulnerable to peer-based issues such as loneliness and perceived isolation. Toward this end, we examined the efficacy of a 20-min substance use intervention named peer network counseling to reduce social stress with 119 urban adolescents. Adolescents presenting at primary care clinics were randomized into treatment or control conditions and followed for 6 months. Utilizing a repeated measures general linear model, we examined the effects of peer network counseling while controlling for race, gender, age, depression symptoms, and substance use (alcohol, marijuana). At 6 months the peer network counseling condition decreased social stress compared to controls (p < 0.05). A linear mixed-effects moderation model revealed that peer network counseling temporarily moderated the effect of alcohol use, but not for marijuana or heavy alcohol use. Peer network counseling seems to reduce social stress, which suppresses alcohol use among peer network counseling participants in the short term. These promising findings appear to support the efficacy of peer network counseling in reducing social stress, which can moderate alcohol use among urban adolescents.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Berkman, L. F., & Glass, T. (2000). Social integration, social networks, social support, and health. In L. Berkman & I. Kawachi (Eds.), Social epidemiology (pp. 137–173). New York: Oxford University Press, Inc.

  • Cacioppo, S., Grippo, A. J., London, S., Goossens, L., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2015). Loneliness: Clinical import and interventions. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10(2), 238–249.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2012). Youth risk behavior survey. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/yrbs. Accessed 15 June 2012.

  • Dishion, T. J., Patterson, G. R., Stoolmiller, M., & Skinner, M. S. (1991). Family, school, and behavioral antecedents to early adolescent involvement with antisocial peers. Developmental Psychology, 27(1), 172–180.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Dulmen, M. H. M., & Goossens, L. (2013). Loneliness trajectories [Editorial]. Journal of Adolescence, 36(6), 1247–1249.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dyal, S. R., & Valente, T. W. (2015). A systematic review of loneliness and smoking: Small effects, big implications. Substance Use & Misuse, 50(13), 1697–1716.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eisinga, R., Grotenhuis, M., & Pelzer, B. (2013). The reliability of a two-item scale: Pearson, Cronbach, or Spearman-Brown? International Journal of Public Health, 58(4), 637–642.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fuhrmann, D., Knoll, L. J., & Blakemore, S. -J. (2015). Adolescence as a sensitive period of brain development [Opinion]. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 19(10), 558–566.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Grzywacz, J. G., & Almeida, D. M. (2008). Stress and binge drinking: A daily process examination of stressor pile-up and socioeconomic status in affect regulation. International Journal of Stress Management, 15(4), 364–380.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Hartup, W. W. (2009). Critical issues and theoretical viewpoints. In K.H. Rubin, W. M. Bukowski, & B. Laursen (Eds.), Handbook of peer interactions, relationships, and groups (pp. 3–19). New York: Guilford Press.

  • Hayes, A. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. New York: The Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • IBM Corp. Released. (2012). IBM SPSS statistics for windows, version 21.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jamieson, J. P., & Mendes, W. B. (2016). Social stress facilitates risk in youths. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Advance online publication. PMID: 26866533.

  • Laursen, B., & Hartl, A. C. (2013). Understanding loneliness during adolescence: Developmental changes that increase the risk of perceived social isolation. Journal of Adolescence, 36(6), 1261–1268.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mason, M., Light, J., Campbell, L., Keyser-Marcus, L., Crewe, S., Way, T., Saunders, H., King, L., Zaharakis, N., & McHenry, C. (2015). Peer network counseling with urban adolescents: A randomized controlled trial with moderate substance users. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 58, 16–24.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Mason, M., Pate, P., Drapkin, M., & Sozinho, K. (2011). Motivational interviewing integrated with a social network intervention for female adolescents: A randomized pilot study in urban primary care. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 41(2), 148–155.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, W., & Rollnick, S. (2013). Motivational interviewing. New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Molloy, L. E., Gest, S. D., & Rulison, K. L. (2011). Peer influences on academic motivation: Exploring multiple methods of assessing youths’ most “influential” peer relationships. Journal of Early Adolescence, 31(1), 13–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Qualter, P., Brown, S. L., Rotenberg, K. J., Vanhalst, J., Harris, R. A., Goossens, L., Bangee, M., & Munne, P. (2013). Trajectories of loneliness during childhood and adolescence: Predictors and health outcomes. Journal of Adolescence, 36(6), 1283–1293.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Reynolds, C. R., & Kamphaus, R. W. (2004). BASC-2: Behavior assessment system for children. 2nd ed. Bloomington, MN: Pearson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rollnick, S., Miller, W., & Butler, C. (2008). Motivational interviewing in health care: Helping patients change behavior. New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rubin, D. B. (1987). Multiple imputation for nonresponse in surveys. New York: J. Wiley & Sons.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Stickley, A., Koyanangi, A., Koposov, R., Schwab-Stone, M., & Ruchkin, V. (2014). Loneliness and health risk behaviours among Russian and U.S. adolescents: A cross-sectional study. BMC Public Health, 14(366). PMID: 24735570. PMCID: PMC4020347.

  • Van Rode, V., Rotsaert, M., & Delhaye, M. (2015). Loneliness and adolescence: Clinical implications and outlook. Literature review. Revue Médicale de Bruxelles, 36(5), 415–420.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

This research was supported by a grant, number 1R34DA032808, from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to the first author. The findings and conclusions are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, or National Institute of Health.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael J. Mason.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflict of interest related to this manuscript or the related research.

Protection of participants

The authors’ university and the city health department’s institutional review boards approved the research protocol, and the study received a federal Certificate of Confidentiality from the National Institutes of Health.

Informed consent

All participants provided informed consent and if a minor assent with parental consent.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Mason, M.J., Zaharakis, N.M. & Sabo, R. Reducing Social Stress in Urban Adolescents with Peer Network Counseling. J Child Fam Stud 25, 3488–3496 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-016-0515-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-016-0515-5

Keywords

Navigation