Subculture Affiliation Is Associated with Substance Use of Adolescents

Abstract

Youth subcultures (hip-hop, punk, skinhead, techno scene, metal) are known for specific lifestyles, music preferences, shared values and behaviours of their members. The aim of this study was to assess the association between subculture affiliation and substance use (tobacco, alcohol and cannabis), and whether gender, family affluence and substance use by peers explain this association. Subculture affiliation was significantly associated with substance use (OR/95% CI: smoking 3.13/2.30–4.24; drinking 2.58/1.95–3.41; drunkenness 2.02/1.54–2.66; cannabis use 2.42/1.46–4.00). Only a part of this risk runs via gender, family affluence and peer substance use. Health promotion should be targeted in particular at adolescents with a subculture affiliation as they are at higher risk of substance use.

The Impact of Parenting Styles on Adolescent Alcohol Use: The TRAILS Study

“…However, it has been shown that children are influenced by parenting practices through their mental representations of it [44], and therefore a child report may be preferred to a parent report. A third limitation is that we were not able to control for peer drinking levels [45] and alcohol-specific parenting which might influence the associations between the parenting styles and adolescents’ alcohol use. A final limitation is that we were unable to draw conclusions about the direction of a causal relationship between overprotection and alcohol use because we assessed overprotection only at the first wave.…”

Protective factors of substance use in youth subcultures

“…Youth subcultures, characterized by a distinctive lifestyle, music preference and shared values and behaviors (Nicholas, 2009), are strongly associated with substance use (Bobakova, Madarasova Geckova, Reijneveld, & van Dijk, 2012). Punk, Skinheads, Techno-scene, Metal and especially Hip-hop were found to be very popular among Slovak adolescents.…”

Contextualizing the mental health of metal youth: A community for social protection, identity, and musical empowerment

“…Luke and David provide evidence here (as others also did) that conflicts with assumptions made in the literature and popular opinion relating metal and drug‐taking, with several authors indicating (without evidence) that metal preferences were a risk factor for substance use (see Bobakova, Madarasova Geckova, Klein, Reijneveld, & Van Dijk, ,b; Leung & Kier, ). Yet here we see that these young people were making conscious decisions to listen to metal instead of taking drugs.…”