Abstract
Smoking and drinking are critical problems in adolescence that have long-term adverse impacts on health and socio-economic factors. We examine the extent to which family stresses influence the timing of initiation of smoking and drinking. Using national panel data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS) we capitalize on the survey design and use school-level fixed effects that control for the local environments, including prices of cigarettes and alcohol. In addition, we narrow our control group to classmates who will experience a similar stressor in the future. We find that a composite measure of family stressors when young increases the likelihood of initiating tobacco and alcohol use, with much of the impact attributable to parental divorce. In our baseline estimates, the composite stress measure is associated with a 30% increase in the likelihood of smoking and a 20% increase in drinking. When we control for multiple sources of confounding, the impact shrinks and remains significant for smoking but not for drinking. We conclude that studies which do not control for confounding are likely to significantly overestimate the impact of family stress on substance use. Our approach helps to move the literature forward by separating causal results from spurious associations.
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Notes
These include: peer influences (Fletcher 2009; Gerrard et al. 1999); stress (Masten 2004; Clark et al. 1997); and environmental and family factors; psychological and psychiatric disorders; and genetic predispositions (Rose 1998; McGue et al. 2000). The impact of these factors may be moderated by other influences such as age, gender, and cognitive ability (Span and Earleywine 1999).
Locus of control is of particular interest because those with a high level of internal locus of control tend to have better command over their behaviors, such as smoking and drinking. A high internal locus of control refers to the extent to which individuals believe that they, through their choices, can control events that affect them. A high external locus of control refers to the belief that their outcomes are determined primarily through outside events, chance or even fate. In each wave, a locus of control scale is administered to the students. The scale measures both internal and external levels of control on a single axis. The locus of control survey asks, for example, how the student feels about themselves. The high internal locus of control responses to select from include: “I feel good about myself; I am able to do things as well as most other people” and other similar responses. The high external locus of control responses include, for example: “I don't have enough control over the direction my life is taking. In my life, good luck is more important than hard work for success”. We use the validated scale to measure locus of control provided by NELS.
In sensitivity analyses we estimate specifications without locus of control due to the potential endogeneity; the coefficients of the stress variables are virtually unchanged when locus of control is omitted. We use the locus of control measured only in 8th grade; we carry forward the measure of locus of control as if it were a time-invariant trait.
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This work was supported by the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research Common Fund through the following grants: RL1-AA017542, UL1-DE019586 and the PL1-DA024859.
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Fletcher, J.M., Sindelar, J.L. The effects of family stressors on substance use initiation in adolescence. Rev Econ Household 10, 99–114 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11150-010-9116-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11150-010-9116-z