Adolescents’ unsupervised time with peers and participation in sports were significantly associated with substance use at the end of high school, according to a study.
The researchers examined longitudinal data on 766 adolescents from 10 locations across the United States. All of the research subjects’ participation in out-of-school time (OST) activities (unsupervised time with peers, sports, and other organized activities, such as band; and paid employment) and use of alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco were measured when they were 15 years old and when they were finishing high school.
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More unsupervised time was correlated with higher amounts of all three types of substance use the researchers examined; for cigarette use (r = 0.19), for alcohol use (r = 0.23), and for marijuana use (r = 0.24). More involvement in paid employment also was related to higher amounts of cigarette (r = 0.10) and alcohol use (r = 0.08), but not marijuana use. More participation in sports was positively correlated only with more alcohol use (r = 0.10). In fact, greater participation in sports actually was associated with lower amounts of cigarette (r = –0.17) and marijuana use (r = –0.08).
“Consistent with predictions of Routine Activity Theory and with prior empirical research, more unsupervised time with peers was found to increase both the odds and amount of substance use reported by adolescents at the end of high school,” according to Kenneth T.H. Lee and Deborah Lowe Vandell, Ph.D., of the University of California, Irvine. “That these relations were found, even when time in other OST contexts were controlled, suggests that lack of adult supervision, the presence of peers, and minimal structure are important processes for influencing substance use in adolescence. Other forms of OST also appeared to be linked to substance use in adolescence, suggesting that these relations were not simply artifacts of a confounding with unsupervised time.”
Among this study’s unique findings are that participation in sports appeared to be a protective factor for marijuana and tobacco use, and that participation in other organized activities did not seem to play a significant protective role against substance use, according to the researchers.
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Areas that were not addressed in this study include the amount of participation in different types of OST non-sports, organized activities, and paid employment, and the efficacy of reducing the amount of unsupervised time that adolescents spend with peers at preventing substance use and abuse.
Read the full study in the Journal of Adolescent Health (doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2015.07.003).