Social Activity, School-related Activity, and Anti–substance Use: Media Messages on Adolescent Tobacco and Alcohol Use

Abstract

In this article, we present the effects of three hypothesized protective factors—social activities, school-related activities, and anti–substance use media messages—on adolescent tobacco and alcohol use. Data were drawn from the “Monitoring the Future” research project, which was conducted by the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. The sample included 2,551 twelfth-grade students. The results of the structural equation model showed that exposure to media anti-drug messages had an indirect negative effect on tobacco and alcohol use through school-related activity and social activity. The results suggest that comprehensive ecological interventions encompassing media, family, and school can increase the preventive effects of adolescent's substance use.

KEYWORDS:

• Adolescence
• substance use
• ecological model
• media
• social activity
• school-related activity

Notes

This work was supported in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health (DA14037, DA15131, DA17804, DA17805, MH62464, and MH68391) and from the Sarah M. and Charles E. Seay Endowed Chair in Child Psychiatry at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

*p < .05;

**p < .01.