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Linking Life Skills and Norms With Adolescent Substance Use and Delinquency in South Africa
Author(s) -
Lai Mary H.,
Graham John W.,
Caldwell Linda L.,
Smith Edward A.,
Bradley Stephanie A.,
Vergnani Tania,
Mathews Cathy,
Wegner Lisa
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of research on adolescence
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.342
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1532-7795
pISSN - 1050-8392
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-7795.2012.00801.x
Subject(s) - juvenile delinquency , psychology , substance use , developmental psychology , salient , peer influence , conflict resolution , clinical psychology , political science , law
We examined factors targeted in two popular prevention approaches with adolescent drug use and delinquency in South Africa. We hypothesized adolescent life skills to be inversely related and perceived norms to be directly related to later drug use and delinquency. Multiple regression and a relative weights approach were conducted for each outcome using a sample of 714 South African adolescents aged 15–19 years ( M = 15.8 years, 57% female adolescents). Perceived norms predicted gateway drug use. Conflict resolution skills (inversely) and perceived peer acceptability (directly) predicted harder drug use and delinquency. The “culture of violence” within some South African schools may make conflict resolution skills more salient for preventing harder drug use and delinquency.