Lesson Learned
Where?
In order of less to more frequent, most drug offers to youth occur in public places such as school, on the street, or at a park; at their own or a friend's home; or at a social setting such as a party. These offers were typically in the presence of known others. On average, 65 percent of the time at least one friend was present and 25% of the time there was at least one acquaintance in the setting.
Adolescents tend to be offered drugs in public, informal gatherings, while college students are more likely to receive offers at home. This may reflect the increased control young adults have over their personal space (i.e., college students have their own apartments), nevertheless; the context of offers tends to change as children develop into young adults. The data also indicate that most middle school students are approached to use drugs in public places, high school students received most of their offers in social situations, and college students were more likely to receive offers at home or at a party.
For example, "I don't go to these parties to drink. I just go there to see my friends and people just drink at these parties."
"If you use it just to party with friends, socially, you're not abusing it and making it a main focus of your life. I do it mostly as a social thing to do."
"Well, ya know. I had nothing else to do. It's like, do your homework, go party with friends, smoke pot here, smoke pot there, go out to clubs, get stoned. That's it."
Interestingly, none of the recipients admitted accepting offers at school. This could be reflective of an unwillingness to admit to such behavior or it could be a result of the fact that most acceptances were of alcohol. It could be that the larger number of offers which were declined at school is indicative of the fact that controlled substance are offered at school whereas alcohol more rarely is. These findings also suggest that youth are twice as likely to accept as refuse an offer made in someone's home.
These studies suggest the following:
- For boys, susceptibility to a drug offer from a girlfriend was best predicted by relational factors: willingness to be with a drug user predicted susceptibility, but was affected by the boys' desire for intimacy and the importance to them of having a partner.
- Those girls who wanted to have a boyfriend and were willing to date drug users would also find it difficult to say no to offers of drugs from those boyfriends.
- On the other hand, girls' level of self esteem contributed an independent source of resistance, consistent with previous research: those girls who had a stronger sense of self-esteem had better negative assertion skills and felt less pressure from boyfriends' drug offers.