Recalled Adolescent Peer Norms towards Drug Use in Young Adulthood in a Low-Income,Minority Urban Neighborhood

Abstract

We investigated the relationship between the drug use norms of young adults' peers (recalled from age 15) and subject's drug use in the past 12 months. Subjects included two samples of 18–24 year olds from a low income, minority neighborhood in New York City: A probabilistically selected household sample, and a targeted sample of users of cocaine, heroin, crack or injected drugs. Norms varied by drug, and were least negative for marijuana, and increasingly negative for cocaine, heroin, crack, and injected drugs. We found a strong relationship between recalled norms and current use both for individual drugs and for a hierarchically defined level of drug use; this relationship remained significant after controlling for sociodemographics and parental and sibling drug use. Intervention programs for young teens that influence peer selection and norms of groups of adolescents should be developed and tested. Research is needed on the social, economic, political, and other determinants of norms in their neighborhood contexts.