Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Research over the past decades has found that adolescent drug use is intricately entwined with serious personal and social problems, including personality trait tendencies, peer pressure, family dysfunction and abuse, and poor school climate. Using structural equation modeling, this study tries to incorporate a set of personal and interpersonal factors to predict marijuana use among a sample of adolescents in two U.S. cities. The study found that sensation seeking rather than impulsivity contributes directly to adolescents’ marijuana use, while the indirect contributions of the personality traits on marijuana use work through the interplay of risk/protective factors, the adolescents’ beliefs about, attitudes toward and intentions to using marijuana.