ABSTRACT
This chapter reports the research on adolescent drug and alcohol behavior. The more individuals define use as good, permissible, or excusable, rather than holding to general or specific negative attitudes toward drugs, the more likely they are to become users. The Boys Town Study was the first major project to test the full social learning model. The original design of the research to test social learning theory on adolescent substance use and abuse envisioned a general community sample of young people and a sample of residents at Boys Town. The statement and test of the social learning theory of drug and alcohol behavior in the chapter concentrates on adolescent use and abuse. The physiological effects of alcohol and other drugs on the nervous system can function as direct nonsocial reinforcers and punishers. Nonsocial reinforcement is more narrowly restricted to the physiological effects of drugs and alcohol and to other unconditioned physiological or physical stimuli.
