The main goal of this study is to investigate social influences of adolescent smoking and drinking. These social influences include social motives, parental attitudes, communal mastery and peers' substance use patterns. Literature suggests that communal mastery (as a form of social competence) may be related to adolescent substance use. In addition, gender differences may be hypothesized in the social influences of adolescent substance use. Data were collected in a middle and high school student population (N = 634, 50.6% males, age range: 11–19, mean: 15.6, S.D.: 2.0) in Szeged, Hungary. The instruments contained questions on sociodemographics, smoking and drinking, social influences, social motives, and communal mastery. Results showed that high levels of communal mastery was an important protective factor against adolescent boys' smoking and drinking. For girls, communal mastery did not play such a role. The role of social motives, friends' and best friend's substance use and parental approval also were justified.
Smoking and drinking, as the most common forms of substance use, are influenced by a variety of social factors. Social influences vary from social norms and expectations to more direct ways of invitations and pressures (see, e.g., Oostveen et al., 1996 and Simons-Morton et al., 2001). The peer context is perhaps the most salient predictor of adolescent substance use, which often is expressed as a social pressure from peers to initiate substance use (Hussong, 2002 and Piko, 2001a). Adjusting to social pressure has been found among the key factors in the initiation of smoking (Li et al., 2003) as well as of drinking (Stewart et al., 1996 and Wild, 2002). Friends' smoking, particularly the best friend's smoking, is often the strongest predictor of smoking in adolescence (De Vries et al., 2003, Piko, 2001a and Stein et al., 1996). Social motives, including one's belief that social gatherings are more fun when cigarettes and alcohol are available for use, are the best predictors of alcohol misuse regardless of gender differences (Bradizza, Reifman, & Barnes, 1999). In addition to peer effect, parental influence remains important as a contribute to adolescent substance use. Previous research results suggest that parents' (approving or disapproving) attitudes towards smoking or drinking, rather than their actual behaviors, are related to their children's substance use (Gerrard et al., 1999, Pederson et al., 1998 and Piko, 2001a).
As a consequence of these social influences, experimentation with smoking and drinking increases dramatically during adolescence (Gilvarry, 2000 and Poikolainen, 2002). In addition, the co-occurrence of smoking and drinking in adolescence is very common, due to the similarities in the background variables, among others, social influences (Johnson, Boles, Vaughan, & Kleber, 2000). Social influences from peers may act as a positive reinforcement to smoking and drinking (Read, Wood, Kahler, Maddock, & Palfai, 2003). This is particularly true for adolescents with poor social competence (Griffin, Epstein, Botvin, & Spoth, 2001). For these adolescents, substance use with peers may act as a form of the adaptation processes during adolescence (Ungar, 2000). On the other hand, good social competence may act as a developmental asset against substance use (Whitlock & Hamilton, 2003).
