청소년의 친구 애착과 약물 사용의 관계

초록

This study aims to analyze the effect of adolescents’ attachment to friends on drug use and to empirically examine whether happiness, as an individual psychological factor, functions as a moderating variable in this relationship. As adolescent drug-related problems have been rapidly increasing both domestically and internationally, previous studies have primarily focused on the influence of peer relationships but have been limited in sufficiently considering individuals’ subjective psychological states. Therefore, this study is theoretically grounded in Hirschi’s social bond theory and focuses on friend attachment, a key element of social bonds, to examine its relationship with drug use while also considering the role of happiness. The data used for analysis were drawn from the 2021 Korean Children and Youth Happiness Index Survey, and the sample consisted of 5,376 middle and high school students. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analysis was employed to indirectly examine the effect of friend attachment on drug use and the moderating effect of happiness. The results indicate that when friend attachment was entered alone into the model, it showed a statistically significant positive effect on drug use, which contradicts the theoretical expectations of Hirschi’s social bond theory. However, when happiness was added to the model, the effect of friend attachment became statistically insignificant, while happiness was found to significantly reduce the likelihood of drug use, indicating that it functions as a strong protective factor. Adolescent addiction problems are not limited to drug abuse but may also lead to various problem behaviors and secondary crimes such as status offenses, online gambling, and self-harm attempts. In particular, the level of attachment to peers and others during adolescence is known to play an important role in the occurrence and escalation of such problem behaviors. These findings suggest that friend attachment does not always function as a social control mechanism that suppresses deviant behavior. In the case of self-directed risk behaviors such as drug use, individual psychological resources may have stronger explanatory power. This study contributes to expanding existing discussions that explain adolescent drug use solely in terms of social bonds by highlighting the importance of an integrated approach that incorporates individual happiness as a key factor.

키워드