In study there was social network analysis for identifying social positions of youth and their use of drugs such as tobacco, alcohol, marijuana and inhalants. It was proved that social status is a factor in youth drug abuse. But it is not the isolates who abused drugs, it was liaisons (ljizns) who were more likely to use tobacco and alcohol and there was no links between social position and marijuana and inhalant abuse.
Liaisons are at increased risk of alcohol and tobacco abuse and there are four possible explanations for that occurring: 1. more possible to associate with substance-using youth. They are more likely to be connected with more people who are either members of groups or isolates. This is ought to be a possible explanation for higher risk of drug abuse
. explanation is stating that there is connection with liaisons, stress and self medicating and drug abuse. once again it goes with liaisons being more connected to peers, who are either members or isolates, and they are even called bridge between peer groups, isolated and so on. Common believe is that a liaison is a well adjusted person, but study has shown different. As a bridge it is his task to help to mediate a conflict, which is a stressful task. They suffer stress connected to conflicting, demand, behavioral expectations and incompatible subgroup norms. They are even in same stress as professionals who deal with multiple social groups in companies. So to relieve the stress they run to tobacco and alcohol abuse.
3. next reason is substance use promoting group acceptance or rejection. Liaisons using tobacco and alcohol gained social approval with alcohol and tobacco use, it was facilitating group entry. In high schools, high status girls were smoking to maintain their social status, they felt free to choose to smoke or not, on the other hand there were low social status girls who were forced to try smoking by influenceable girls. They would do anything to became a part of the popular group, and there was also a factor of peer pressure. in that case, tobacco or alcohol was used to become a part of group and not just being a part of periphery
4. liaisons were being marginalized by peers, only 3 years older were more likely to use tobacco if they were isolated.
There are also differences when it comes to ethnicity, races and residence location, whites have lower alcohol ratio than others, females had less chances to use marijuana, small city youth is more likely to use drugs (excluding inhalants) than large-city ones. suburban and rural youth are more likely to abuse drugs.
Early Adolescent Social Networks andSubstance UseTim Berce, Zala Dolenc, Jan Fizovič, Tina Rozman, Matic VirantDI-UNI, 17.4.2012
Research: David B. Henry & Kimberly Kobus, University of Chicago Sample of 1000 youth Divided in 3 groups: members, liasons, isolates
Results of other researchesEnnet and Bauman, 1993Fang, 2003
Members of triadic tiesTriadic ties : Legend: - individual
Third limitation Studies defined social positions on the basis one-way ties. Hypothesis• Social positions are related to adolescent use of tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, and inhalants.• Isolates would more likely use tobacco and inhalants.• Members would use marijuana and a
Participants 1,119 sixth-grade children from 144 classes 14 public schools the sample was divided between male and female students African American, White, and Hispanic children
Measures friendship - the peer nomination inventory Procedure: each student - printed page displaying a list of all boys and girls in his or her classroom student crossed off every name that fit the question asked by the assessor after the first year of the study, the inventory also included an item asking participants to identify their three best friends
this item is typically used in classroom network analysis limiting youth to three nominations has been criticized for not accurately modeling actual network structures rather than limiting nominations to three, they used the item “Who would you like to be your best friends?”
Substance use. involvement in substance use was measured using an abbreviated version of the Self-Report of Delinquency adapted from the Denver Youth Study measure asked youth about the frequency of 25 delinquent acts ranging from school truancy to drug use four items tapping the frequency of substance use were analyzed in this study
Procedures participants completed the measures at their school desks classroom teacher was not in the room at the time of administration Students without parental consent were assigned alias IDs that allowed their data to be used in network analysis without identifying them or linking their data to other study data