Self-esteem and perceived control in adolescent substance use: Comparative tests in concurrent and prospective analyses.

Abstract

The relationship of positive and negative dimensions of self-esteem and perceived control to substance (tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana) use was tested with a sample of 1,775 adolescents, surveyed in 8th grade and followed up 1 year later. Esteem and control were highly correlated. Concurrent multiple regression analyses with simultaneous entry indicated internal control inversely related, and self-derogation positively related, to substance use; the unique contribution for control variables was 6.4 times the unique contribution for esteem variables. In prospective analyses, only internal control was significant. Self-attitudes were less relevant in general for substance use among Black adolescents compared with Hispanic and White adolescents; self-derogation was less relevant for adolescents in single-famili es compared with two-parent families. Previous findings on self-esteem and substance use may be partially reflecting the effect of perceived control. The relationship between self-attitudes and substance use is of interest for theory on the psychological aspects of substance use. The proposition that substance use is related to self-attitudes has been a central postulate in some theoretical models (e.g., Kaplan, 1980). With regard to adolescents, the basic proposition is that risk for substance use derives from low selfesteem. It is posited that adolescents strive to maintain positive self-attitudes, but these may be undermined through failure to cope effectively with situations that have self-devaluing implications. Substance use has been viewed as a deviant