Differentiating peer contexts and risk for adolescent substance use

The peer context is perhaps the most salient, robust predictor of an adolescent's substance use. However, in previous studies, the peer context is often poorly defined. The current study examined 3 models to understand how substance use within best friendships, peer cliques, and social crowds predicts adolescents' substance involvement. A sample of 377 high school juniors and seniors completed surveys assessing substance use and peer relationships. Results suggest that each of these 3 dimensions of the peer context uniquely predict adolescent substance use. Moreover, these peer contexts interacted in the prediction of adolescents' substance use such that adolescents who were more highly embedded in substance-using peer contexts showed greater risk for substance use whereas adolescents with substance-using best friends showed a reduced risk for substance use if they had other close friends who were less involved with substances.