Chemical Youth : Navigating Uncertainty in Search of the Good Life

Chemical Youth : Navigating Uncertainty in Search of the Good Life

Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography
Medical sociology
Sociology
Sociology: family & relationships
Cultural studies

Social and behavioral scientists have tended to focus on young people’s use of (both legal and illegal) psychoactive and addictive substances, largely ignoring their use of other kinds of chemicals. There are four broad trends in this body of research: one set of studies defines substance use as risky behavior, something that needs to be prevented by understanding the determinants of use. These studies usually have a narrow focus on particular drugs, such as alcohol, cigarettes, cannabis, heroin, and ecstasy; they present statistics on the use of these “problem drugs” and seek to identify associated risk factors. These surveys show that factors such as education, poverty, violence, and peer pressure are associated with drug use (for example, Assanangkornchai et al. 2007; Kokkevi et al. 2007; Hibell et al. 2009; Legleye et al. 2011). For example, a study of cannabis experimentation among French teenagers found that one out of five 8th to 10th graders had tried cannabis (Jovic et al. 2014). The researchers report that teenagers of low socioeconomic status who were living with both parents, feeling well monitored, and had good communication with their mothers were less likely to experiment with cannabis than those who did not like school and felt undervalued by teachers. In the Netherlands, a study found that parents had little influence on young adults’ cannabis use, which was instead associated with the actions of their peers and partners (Liebregts et al. 2013).

Anita Hardon

https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/42921

Springer Nature

2021

Patrick Brown (Ed.)
Anna Olofsson (Ed.)
Jens O. Zinn (Ed.)

J®F

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Pdf

English

Textbooks

DOI : 10.1007/978-3-030-57081-1