The project examines drug use and resistance within an understudied context, adolescent dating relationships. Relational partners are a frequent source of initiation into drug use for women. In addition, teenage pregnancy, date rape, and physical abuse occur in a relational context and are exacerbated by drug use. Most relational research in the drug literature has focused on sexuality with less consideration given to emotional intimacy, even though adolescence is a critical time for developing healthy patterns of relational intimacy. The project will examine how drug use affects the development of intimacy in adolescent romance and the unique pressures to acquiesce to drug offers that accompany intimacy. First, interviews with 80 Hispanic and Caucasian females and males will address how drug use may be introduced, encouraged, or resisted in high school relationships, the norms surrounding dating and drug use, and the relationship of drug use to perceived intimacy. Second, a survey will be developed from the interview data and given to 240 male and female Hispanic and Caucasian students four times over two years, providing information on drug use within and across partners. Students' partners will also be recruited to complete surveys, providing corroborative evidence of use and influence. Resistance abilities, resistance strategies, and dating and drug use norms are expected to differ by gender and ethnicity. Information from the studies can be used to develop an ethnically- and gender-sensitive intervention program designed to teach drug resistance skills that are particularly suited to high school students in romantic relationships.
