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Peer Influence On Drug Use

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Peer Influence On Drug Use
Does Peer Influence Have an Effect on First Time Drug Use?
Abstract:
My research question is; does peer influence have an effect on first time drug use?
To do my research I created a survey that would determine if peer pressure had an effect on first time drug use. I have always been curious about people who are addicted to various drugs. Everyone just sees a junky, or an alcoholic, I want to know why. Why they chose to try it in the first place. In my paper I will be focusing on college students. I asked 10 females and 10 males to fill out my survey. I asked them their age, if they had ever tried drugs, what kind of drugs, why they had tried drugs for the first time, and if they continued to use drugs after their first time. My major …show more content…
The reason I have chosen this is to determine if in fact it is the friends they are hanging out with or if it is their own curiosity. I have always been curious about people who are addicted to various drugs. Everyone just sees a junky, or an alcoholic, I want to know why. Why they chose to try it in the first place. In my paper I will be focusing on college students. Giving them a survey with various questions concerning why they tried the drug, what kinds of drugs they have used, if they tried it more than once and if they encouraged others to try drugs . In all three articles that I have reviewed they had the same hypothesis as I did; that cause of first time drug use is peer influence. But in all studies it wasn’t proven completely right. Yes it is a factor but most young people use drugs out of curiosity, or just plain old …show more content…
In the beginning I was going to ask 20 students in my college success class that is mixed with students from other programs in Northern College. Although that is not how I gathered my respondents, I asked them individually as I passed them in the halls, in the library, and the cafeteria of the college. I informed them as to the purpose of my research, and also told them that is was completely confidential and that I would destroy them after I collected and analyzed all my data. They filled out my surveys and returned them to me right away. The independent variable is peer influence and the dependent variable is first time drug use. I defined reason in seven different categories; depression, stress at home, stress at school, peer pressure, peer influence, curiosity, and
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