Abstract
The correlates of alcohol use by adolescents are compared in three cultures with different prevalences of alcohol use: France, with high prevalence; Israel, with low prevalence; and the United States, in the middle. In all three countries, significant others, parents and peers, are more powerful predictors of alcohol use than are the adolescent's personal attributes, such as attitudes, behaviors, and demographic characteristics. Cross-cultural differences appear in the relative importance of parents and peers and in the structure of influence of parents and peers as role models. Parents are more important role models in Israel than in the other two cultures, while peers are more important in the United States than in France or in Israel.
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This research was partially supported by Research Grants DA01902, DA00064, and Research Scientist Grant K05-DA00081 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and by the Center for SocioCultural Research on Drug Use, Columbia University.
Received Ph.D. from Stanford University. Main interests are mathematical sociology, social stratification, and adolescent substance use.
Received Ph.D. from Columbia University. Main interests are adolescent socialization, substance use, and psychiatric epidemiology.
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Adler, I., Kandel, D.B. A cross-cultural comparison of sociopsychological factors in alcohol use among adolescents in Israel, France, and the United States. J Youth Adolescence 11, 89–113 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01834706
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01834706