A Multistage Social Learning Model of the Influences of Family and Peers upon Adolescent Substance Abuse

A multistage social learning model of parental and peer influences on substance abuse is proposed. Building upon the work of Bandura (1977) and Patterson (1986), but also drawing from theory and research on coping and value socialization, the model provides an explanatory framework for many of the well-established empirical generalizations concerning drug use and also generates a number of new hypotheses. While the model provides an explanation for initiation into substance use, it is primarily concerned with identifying those factors which cause adolescents to escalate their involvement with substances. Significantly, in the course of tracing the etiology of heavy substance use, the model identifies possible causal mechanisms related to two other adolescent social problems, viz., depression and delinquency, and specifies the manner in which these phenomena are related to substance use.