Relationship Between Personality and Adolescent Drug Use: Effects of Substance Abusing Peers and Gender

Abstract

The goal of this paper was to explore whether sensation
seeking and anger exert a direct and/or an indirect
effect on adolescent lifetime cannabis and inhalant use
through substance abusing peers. In addition, the purpose
was to explore whether direct effects of these two personality
factors are dependent on gender. Analyzed data were
collected in 2012 from 394 students (186 boys, 193 girls,
while 15 students didn't indicate their gender), aged
between 15 and 17 years. In the case of lifetime cannabis
use, mediation analyses showed the significance of the
indirect effect of sensation seeking on this drug type use
through substance abusing peers. Likewise, it was
shown that sensation seeking and anger both exert direct
effect on this drug type, but independently of gender.
In the case of lifetime inhalant use, two personality
factors do not exert indirect nor direct effect on this drug
type use. In addition, these direct effects are not
dependent on gender. Data presented in this paper
elucidate risk pathways to cannabis and inhalant use,
considering some possible differences between these risk
pathways.