Psychosocial maturity and self-reported motivation for use of psychoactive substances among a sample of Arizona youth: Implications for prevention.

Abstract

Adolescent drug use motivations were examined from the perspective of Erik Erikson's psychosocial theory (1963; 1968) of human development. The study used an existing data base derived from a sample of about 13,000 Arizona students in grades seven through twelve. Two questions were asked. The first examined the students' self-reported perceptions of drug use/nonuse motivations across the four ego-identity stages of Marcia (1966). The second examined drug use motivational perceptions within the four stages. First, approximately 13,000 Young People Survey (Jones, 1986) respondents were classified into the four ego-identity stages for each of two domains, Interpersonal and Ideological (Grotevant & Adams, 1984), according to rules suggested by Adams (1979). A random sample of approximately 200 of these respondents was then selected for the analyses for each of eight categories: Interpersonal achievement, moratorium, foreclosure, and diffusion; and Ideological achievement, moratorium, foreclosure, and diffusion. Subject responses to two survey questions were analyzed for the first research question. One survey question had asked the students why they thought people their age used drugs and alcohol, the second survey question asked students who had not used alcohol why they had not done so. The eight analyses revealed that the reported motivations were significantly different (p < .05) across all four ego-identity stages for both domains. The second research question analyzed responses to the survey question dealing with drug use motivations, and tested whether motivational responses discriminated marijuana users from nonusers within each of the four ego-identity stages. Each analysis produced statistically significant results. For achieved subjects, peers, recreation, and curiosity combined to discriminate marijuana users from nonusers (p < .05). For moratorium subjects, it was peers, recreation, and stress (p < .05). For foreclosed subjects, peers, curiosity, and recreation discriminated between users and nonusers (p < .05); and for diffused subjects, it was peers, boredom, and recreation (p < .05). The study indicates that young people use psychoactive substances for reasons which vary according to their level of ego-identity development (psychosocial maturity). Additionally, the study indicates that adolescent drug use motivations also depend upon their experience with drugs.