Social network isolation mediates associations between risky symptoms and substance use in the high school transition.

ABSTRACT: The current study examined whether social status and social integration, two related but distinct indicators of an adolescent's standing within a peer network, mediate the association between risky symptoms (depressive symptoms and deviant behavior) and substance use across adolescence. The sample of 6,776 adolescents participated in up to seven waves of data collection spanning 6th to 12th grades. Scores indexing social status and integration were derived from a social network analysis of six schools and subsequent psychometric modeling. Results of latent growth models showed that social integration and status mediated the relation between risky symptoms and substance use and that risky symptoms mediated the relation between social standing and substance use during the high school transit

SUBMITTER: Hussong AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7011186 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature