Adolescent psychoactive substance use and attachment style

The relationship between adolescent psychoactive substance use and attachment styles was examined in this study. In addition, the demographic variables of parental socioeconomic status and level of education were examined for their relationship to adolescent use of alcohol and drugs. The participants were 115 volunteers who were students at two high schools in a northeastern state. The instruments administered to the participants included a demographic data sheet, the Adolescent Alcohol Involvement Scale (AAIS; Mayer & Filstead, 1979), the Adolescent Drug Involvement Scale (ADIS; Moberg & Hahn, 1991), and the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA; Armsden & Greenberg, 1987).; After classifying each of the participants as either an experimenter, abstainer, or frequent user on the AAIS and the ADIS, the frequency of attachment styles was determined. A high percentage of the participants were classified as frequent users (68.7%) of alcohol with another high percentage classified as experimenters (60.9%) with drugs. In addition, a high rate of secure attachment to each parent (78.3% to mothers, 77.4% to fathers) and to peers (68.1%) was found. Chi square tests and correlation coefficients were computed between the substance use subscales and the attachment subscales. No significant relationships were found between degree of attachment to parent and adolescent substance use nor attachment style and adolescent substance use.; In addition, ANOVAs were performed to determine if adolescent substance use differed by parental level of income and parental level of education. As was expected, no significant difference was found for adolescent substance use by parental level of income. There was an effect for parent level of education and alcohol use. Scheffe post hoc tests indicated that children whose parents held graduate degrees used alcohol less than those adolescents whose fathers had high school diplomas or mothers had two year college or vocational school degrees. There, however, were no significant differences in drug use by parental level of education.