Social structure and social learning in adolescent delinquency and substance use: A test of the mediating process of social learning theory

Although most structural theories of crime and deviance acknowledge the importance of social conditions, the concrete mechanisms by which these abstract concepts affect substance use and delinquent behaviors often are not articulated clearly. This study examines the theoretical links or mechanisms between social structural factors and delinquency and substance use by individuals. The theoretical framework emphasizes social learning as the process by which various social structural factors, environments, and conditions produce changes in adolescent delinquent and substance use behavior. The guiding hypothesis of this study is that individuals' behavior is shaped by these social conditions through a social psychological process best described by social learning theory.; The empirical analyses have evaluated the relationships with regard to two dimensions of social structure that are differential social location indicated by age, gender, race, and socio-economic status, and differential location in primary groups indicated by family structure.; The data sets from the National Youth Survey and the Boys Town Study. The NYS is a study of self-reported delinquency in a national probability sample of youth 11 to 17 years olds in 1976. The participating youths (1,725) were interviewed in their homes for the first time in 1977. The first five annual waves of data were used for this analysis. The Boys Town data come from a self-report survey of alcohol, tobacco, and drug behavior among secondary school adolescents (grades 7 through 12) in seven Midwestern communities (N = 3,065).; Results indicate that delinquency and substance use in adolescence is explained by the social structure factors and characteristics through the social learning process. Findings suggest that social characteristics have indirect influence on the adolescent marijuana use and drug trafficking only through the social learning process. In the models for property and violent delinquency and alcohol use, the social learning variables partially, but substantially mediate the influence of social characteristics on delinquency.