At the sight of opportunity who gets high: a cross-national study of self-control
Date
2017
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Among adolescents worldwide, cannabis remains as the most widely used
illicit substance. However, the majority of research on criminal offending and
delinquency among youth has mainly focused on addictive drugs and alcohol.
Therefore, this study intends to assess self-control among adolescents in nations with
differing cannabis policies. To explore the relationship between self-control and
cannabis use among three countries with distinct regulations on cannabis, data from
the second International Self-Reported Delinquency (ISRD-2) are used. Multivariate
logistic regression models are country-specific and work independently, predicting
cannabis use for the United States, Spain and Netherlands. Results indicate that across
the three nations, self-control played an influential role in cannabis use. In addition,
results demonstrate that countries with stricter cannabis policies have the most youth
engaging in cannabis use. These findings suggest that strict cannabis policies does not
necessarily mean a decreased use of cannabis, but in fact the opposite may be
occurring.
Description
Keywords
Social sciences, Psychology, Cannabis policies, Cross-national comparison, Self-control, Youth