Multistage path models of adolescent alcohol and drug use: age variations.

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Abstract
Correlates of drinking and drug use were examined in a national sample of 1121 teen-agers (aged 12-18; 585 girls) surveyed by the Gallup organization in 1975. Parental affection, parental approval of friends, religiousness, conformity and commitment (to family, church, school), self-esteem and alienation were measured by the adolescents'' responses to items on 6 scales. Path analysis of data on 3 age groups (13-14, 15-16 and 17-18) showed that drinking influenced the use of cannabis, which in turn influenced the use of other drugs. At ages 13-14, parental affection and adolescent religiousness generated conformity-commitment, which had a negative effect (path coefficient of -.23) on drinking; religiousness had a direct and negative influence (-.12) on drinking. At ages 15-16, parental approval of friends was related directly and negatively (-.16), and, through conformity-commitment, indirectly and negatively to drinking; religiousness had a direct and negative effect (-.33), and an indirect effect through conformity-commitment, on drinking. At ages 17-18, conformity-commitment continued to have negative (-.14) effect on drinking, while religiousness and parental affection retained their direct and negative effects (-.26 and -.13).

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