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The Highs That Bind: School Context, Social Status and Marijuana Use

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Abstract

Substance use has been closely linked with the structural characteristics of adolescent social networks. Those who drink, smoke, and use drugs typically enjoy an elevated status among their peers. Rates of substance use vary substantially across schools, and indicators of school structure and climate account for at least part of this variation. Emerging research suggests peer-group processes are contingent on school context, but questions remain regarding the school-level mechanisms which condition the influence of network characteristics on substance use. The present study uses multilevel logistic regression models to examine the moderating influence of school connectedness, school drug culture, and global network density on the association between peer network status and marijuana use. The analyses draw on self, peer, and parental data from a sample of 7,548 high-school aged youth nested within 106 schools participating in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (mean age = 15.2; % white = 59 %; male = 45 %). The results indicate that school connectedness significantly reduces the effect of social status on marijuana use. This provides evidence that school-level mechanisms can reduce the instrumentality of marijuana consumption in the status attainment process in adolescence.

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Notes

  1. Model fit was calculated by multiplying the difference in log-likelihoods between the full and restricted models by −2. The product conforms to a Chi-square distribution with the degrees of freedom equal to the difference in parameters between the full and restricted model. A significant Chi-square value indicates the full model provides a better fit than the restricted model.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Chris McDaniel and Allen Wong for their assistance on earlier drafts of this manuscript. All mistakes are our own. This research uses data from Add Health, a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Information on how to obtain the Add Health data files is available on the Add Health website (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth). No direct support was received from grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis.

Author contributions

MV was responsible for identifying the problem, formulating the research questions, designing the analytic strategy, performing data management, estimating and interpreting the statistical models, and drafting the manuscript. CR helped construct the research hypotheses and contributed knowledge about social networks to the theoretical framing and literature review. TM participated in reformulating the initial draft, revising subsequent drafts, and editing the final manuscript. DC aided in the formulation of hypotheses and discussion of results centered on peer influence. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Missouri – St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Matt Vogel & Timothy McCuddy

  2. Department of Sociology, University at Albany, SUNY, Albany, NY, USA

    Chris E. Rees

  3. School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN, USA

    Dena C. Carson

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  1. Matt Vogel
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  3. Timothy McCuddy
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  4. Dena C. Carson
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Correspondence to Matt Vogel.

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Vogel, M., Rees, C.E., McCuddy, T. et al. The Highs That Bind: School Context, Social Status and Marijuana Use. J Youth Adolescence 44, 1153–1164 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-015-0254-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-015-0254-8

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