Negative Reflected Appraisal, Negative Self-Perception, and Drug Use Intentions in a Sample of Suburban High School Students

Abstract

Drawing on theories of symbolic interaction, some researchers have suggested that negative reflected appraisal imposes a “delinquent” identity on adolescents whom adults and peers perceive as delinquent, creating ego identity discomfort that these adolescents seek to mitigate through association with drug-using peers for whom the delinquent label is evaluated more positively. On the other hand, research on reflected appraisal and delinquency has suggested that negative reflected appraisal is more salient for adolescents who are or desire to be part of high-status peer groups than for adolescents who are uninterested in such peer groups. This article reports results of a secondary analysis of evaluation data from a federally sponsored school-based substance abuse prevention project testing whether reflected appraisal is associated with subsequent intention to use marijuana, whether this association is mediated by negative self-concept, and whether it is moderated by ethnicity and gender. Results indicate that reflected appraisal is associated with marijuana use intentions and that negative self-concept mediates this association. It also indicates that the association between negative reflected appraisal and negative self-concept is weaker for African Americans and males, and that the association between negative reflected appraisal and marijuana use intentions is less salient for Hispanics.

KEYWORDS:

• adolescents
• drug use intentions
• reflective appraisal
• self-perception
• substance use

Support for this research was provided by a grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)/Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) to the Texas Department of State Health Services and subcontracted to Phoenix House of Texas, Inc. Opinions expressed herein are solely those of the authors.

Notes

*p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.