May 8th, 2017
Analytic Essay
Professor Shaw
Substance Use by Teenagers and the Influence of Popular Culture:
Symbolic Interaction and Social Learning Perspective According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA,2014), by the time an adolescent is a high school senior they have tried some type of substance. The NIDA states, that 70 percent of the high school population has tried alcohol, 40 percent will have smoked a cigarette, and more than 20 percent will have used a prescription drug for nonmedical purposes (NIDA,2014). A revised survey from the NIDA in 2016, they showed, “with the past-year use of illicit drugs, other than marijuana, continue to decline to the lowest level in the history of the survey I all three grades (10th-12th grade),” (NIDA,2016). Regardless of the decline of the use of illicit drugs, the influence in pop culture plays a role in the influence on substance use among teens. The two theories that I will be using to help explain my topic are symbolic interactionist and social learning. Symbolic interaction will help analysis the influence of the interaction of an adolescent with others help influence their behavior and promotes them to use drugs and change their perspective on how they see drugs in their world. I will also be using Social learning perspective with analyzing the influence that pop culture …show more content…
by Cameron Duff, explores the shift in the meaning and culture of adolescent drug use, contrasting developments in the United Kingdom and Australia. Duff interest is to answer the question. Duff gathered information from Howard Park’s ‘normalization thesis.’ Duff argues that “Parker’s approach has some value with the changing nature of adolescent drug use in Australia,” (Duff, 433). He wants to explain the shifts among adolescent’s drug use by using two contemporary debates among Sociology and cultural