Assessing the efficacy of the social control theory for explaining the cigarette smoking and alcohol drinking behavior of African-Americans and Mexican-Americans

This research addressed the efficacy of the social control theory in explaining the cigarette smoking and alcohol drinking behavior of African American and Mexican youth as well as it explains these behaviors for white youth. This is a secondary data analysis that utilizes the National Educational Longitudinal data (NELS:88).;Results from the data analyses indicate that the drinking and smoking behavior of females was significant. In addition, findings indicate the model was a better explanation of the smoking and drinking behavior of whites than African Americans and Mexicans. Also, the model was a better explanation of the smoking and drinking behavior of Mexicans than African Americans. Finally, the social control model is a better explanation of the smoking behavior of all adolescents than it is of their drinking behavior.;Future research utilizing the social control variable should (1) include original data collection to address the limitations of having to compute variables from data that has already been collected. This would insure the exact specification of the social control indicators as well as the control variables (i.e., race and class); and (2) Include social indicators that are conceptualized taking into account cultural differences. This would require the researcher to understand what cultural differences might exist when considering the conceptualization of attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief.