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PARENTS AND DRUGS REVISITED: SOME FURTHER EVIDENCE IN SUPPORT OF SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY *
Author(s) -
DEMBO RICHARD,
GRANDON GARY,
VOIE LAWRENCE La,
SCHMEIDLER JAMES,
BURGOS WILLIAM
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
criminology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.467
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1745-9125
pISSN - 0011-1384
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-9125.1986.tb00378.x
Subject(s) - social learning theory , social control theory , psychology , developmental psychology , ethnic group , drug , attachment theory , social support , social learning , clinical psychology , social psychology , psychiatry , juvenile delinquency , pedagogy , sociology , anthropology
Social control and social learning theories suggest divergent relationships between attachment to parents and children's drug use when level of parent drug use is considered. Social control theory proposes a uniformly negative relationship between children's drug use and attachment to parents whereas social learning theory proposes that the relationship is affected by parental drug use. The relationship between attachment to parents and children's drug use was investigated for each of three groups of low, moderate, and high parental drug use through estimation of a latent variable structural model of attachment to family on children's tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use. Results indicate that attachment to parents related inversely, but with different magnitudes, to children's drug use for youths whose parents use drugs at low or moderate levels. No significant relationship exists between attachment to family and children's drug use for youths whose parents are relatively high‐level users. Neither ethnicity nor sex affected these findings. The implications of these results supporting social learning theory are discussed.