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20 Deviant Behav. 1 (1999)

handle is hein.journals/devbh20 and id is 1 raw text is: age, social learning, and social bonding in adolescent substance use Ronald L. Akers and Gang Lee University of Florida Gainesville, Florida, USA We propose that social learning and social bonding theories are capable of accounting for the well-known relationship of crime and delinquency to age. Models incorporating age and variables derived from these two theories are tested with data on adolescent substance use among a large sample of Midwest adolescents in Grades 7 through 12. Older adolescents consume more marijuana than younger adolescents, and the age-use curve is matched by the relationship between age and social learning variables. Differences in use by age are also correlated with differences in strength of social bonds by age, but to a lesser extent. The findings support the hypothesis that age variations in marijuana use are mediated by age-related variations in social learning; there is also support, although somewhat weaker, for the similar hypothesis that social bonding variables mediate the age-marijuana use relationship during adolescence. Age differences in delinquency, crime, and deviance are well known, and inclusion of an age variable (along with gender, class, and other sociodemographic variables) is almost routine in research on crime and delinquency. Although most of this research treats age and these other variables as simply control or nontheoretical variables, they have theoretical connotations as indicators of differences in social roles, social characteristics, or sociocultural influences on behavior. The theoretical rele- vance of the age factor in crime and deviance has been given added significance and renewed attention by the work of Travis Received 12 November 1997; accepted 14January 1998. This article is a revision of a paper presented to the American Society of Criminology, San Diego, November 1997. Address correspondence to Ronald L. Akers, Center for Studies in Criminology and Law, P. 0. Box 115950, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611. Email: rla@soc.ufl.edu Deviant Behavior: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 19: 1-25, 1999 Copyright @ 1999 Taylor & Francis 0163-9625/99 $12.00 + .00 1

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