DIMENSIONS OF MORAL CHARACTER AND DRUG USE AMONG RURAL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

GREGORY J. JURKOVIC’

Gemgia State University

Related major parameters of moral character (socialization and empathy) identified by Hogan (1973) to self-reported drug use in a sample of 88 rural high school students. As expected, level of socialization correlated significantly with total drugs used, frequency of marijuana use, and number of drug-related social complications. However, a t variance with past research of college students, empathy did not relate to any of the drug-use variables examined. It was speculated that the implications of characterologicd factors for drug use may vary with age of the user.

Hogan (1973) has identified major parameters of character development that are hypothesized to influence one’s interpretation and application of moral rules. For example, one of the key dimensions in his model, socialization, reflects the extent to which rules are internalized or regarded as personally binding. Another (empathy) refers to the individual’s sensitivity to the perspectives of others and ability to consider moral issues from an abstract point of view.

Research with college student samples has shown that these characteristics are related significantly to the use or nonuse of psychotropic substances. Hogan, Mankin, Conway, and Fox (1970), for example, found that college students who reported frequent marijuana use obtained lower mean socialization and higher mean empathy scores than men in general ; “principled” nonusers who indicated that they had not and never would smoke marijuana scored high on the sociali- zation and low on the empathy scale. In another study of college students, sociali- zation correlated negatively (for males and females) and empathy correlated positively (for males only) with marijuana use (Haier, 1977). Examination of the number of users and nonusers among “sociopathic” (low socialization, high em- pathy) and “moral realist” (high socialization, low empathy) types in this study provided further support for these trends.

In view of the nonconforming although interpersonally sensitive disposition of marijuana smokers, Hogan e t al. (1970) concluded that use of marijuana is most probably a “solipsistic or self regarding activity which is perhaps more properly classified as amoral than immoral (p. 631.” That is, its use does not appear tan- tamount to a more general delinquent orientation (low socialization, low empathy). Whether this characterization is generalizable to earlier stages of marijuana use was the focus of the present investigation. Various dimensions of drug-related behavior including frequency of marijuana use were related to the socialization and empathy scores of rural high school students.

METHOD Sample

Measures of moral character and drug use were administered to 88 students in grades 9 through 12 in a public high school of approximately 110 students. The school serves two rural communities in the Rocky Mountain region with a total population of less than 1,000 individuals. Agriculture and mining provide the major sources of employment. The group included 54 males and 34 females, the averagc. age was 16.17, and the average year in school was 10.18.

Measures In accordance with procedures used by Hogan (1973), moral character was

asorsscd with the 54-item socialization scale (Gough, 1969) of the California Psy-

‘Address reprint requests to the author a t the Department of Psychology, Georgia State Uni- versity, University Plaza, Atlanta, Georgia 30303.

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chological inventory (CPI) and with Hogan’s (1969) abbreviated empathy scale. The latter (composed of 39 items found on the CPI) has been shown to correlate .92 with the longer version and .03 with the socialization scale (Hogan, 1969). Both scales arc truc-false, empirically keyed indices.

Self-reported drug use then was measured with an adaptation of Carman’s (1973, 1974) structured inventory. The studcrits first were asked to indicate which drugs of nine listed they had used or currently were using. For those who reported using drugs, data were collected on the frequency of marijuana use (possible range = 0-5; 0 = never and 5 = 1 or 2 times per day) and the number of social com- plications that resulted from their drug use. To assess the latter, the students were presented a list of eight drug-related complications (trouble with family, friends, authorities) and asked to designate which ones they had experienced. Previous research (e.g., Carman, 1973, 1974) with inventories of this kind has demonstrated their internal consistency, expected relation to other variables, and strong tendency to elicit complete and undistorted responses.

Procedure All measures were administered during a regular classroom period. The ex-

aminer clarified word meanings when necessary. The questionnaire took about 40 minutes to complete, and nothing unusual happened during its administration that might raise questions about the validity of the results. The students were instructed not to identify themselves on the questionnaire to insure their anonymity.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Of the total sample of 88 students, 52 (59%) reported use of drugs. Among

the drug users, 100% had smoked marijuana. Fewer also had used amphetamines (54%), hallucinogens (27%), opium (17a/0), cocaine (17%), barbiturates (6%), codeine (a%), morphine (a%), and/or heroin (0%).

Although these trends roughly correspond to previous research of drug use among high school students in the Rocky Mountain region (Carman, 1973), more adolescents reported marijuana use in the present study. It is likely that liberali- zation of legal and social norms that govern this substance has contributed to its increased usage in recent years. The role of sampling differences cannot be ruled out, however. That is, while both investigations were conducted in rural areas, students in the present study resided in less populous communities that were experiencing a rapid influx of people due to energy development. Unfortu- nately, little research is available to evaluate the probable impact of such demo- graphic change on adolescent behaviors and attitudes.

The total drugs used, frequency of marijuana use, and number of drug-related social complications in this study averaged 1.31 (SD = 1.52), 1.76 (SD = 1.94) (1 or 2 times/month), and 1.14 (SD = 1.53) for the entire sample and 2.21 ( S D = 1.38), 2.98 (SD = 1.64) (1 or 2 times/week), and 1.92 (SD = 1.56) for the group of drug users. The mean socialization and empathy scores were 31.56 ( S D = 7.19) and 15.77 ( S D = 4.03) for the entire sample and 28.62 (SD = 6.72) and 18.71 (SD = 4.14) for the group of drug users. Correlations between drug-use and moral- character variables are presented in Table 1. Because the pattern of results was similar for both sexes, only the correlations for males and females combined are shown.

Socialization correlated inversely with frequency of reported marijuana use, which provided further support for past studies that link experience with this substance to characterologic factors (Haier, 1977; Hogan et al., 1970). Personal disregard of rules was also coincident with multidrug use and consequent social complications. To determine whether similar results would obtain for the group of drug users, correlations were calculated for this group alone (cf. Table 1). Al- though these correlations were attenuated slightly, the same trend can be seen for socialization to correlate negatively with the various drug-use measures.

896 Journal of Clinical Psychology, October, 1979, VoE. 35, No. 4.

TABLE 1 CORRELATIONS BETWEEN MORAL CHARACTER AND DRUG USE FOR

TOTAL GROUP ( N = 88) AND FOR THOSE WHO USE DRUGS ( N = 52)

Total group Drug users ~~ ~

Socialization-total drugs - .47*** - .27 Socialization-marijuana frequency - .52*** - .37**

Empathy-total druga .03 .02 Empathy-marijuana frequency - .01 . 00

Socialization-social complications - .46*** - .32*

Empathy-social complications - .07 -.03

*Q <.05.

***Q <.001. **p <.01.

In contrast t o research with older samples (Haier, 1977; Hogan et al., 1970), none of the correlations that involve empathy approached significance (cf. Table 1). Neither restrictions in the distribution of scores nor nonlinear trends appeared to account for the lack of relation. Because of these findings, planned multicor- relation analyses to assay the degree to which socialization and empathy, con- sidered together, predict drug-related behavior were not conducted.

Several questions are raised by the present findings. It is not clear, for example, whether a cavalier attitude toward rules and associated drug use is indicative of antisocial personality trends or merely of adaptive strivings for independence and autonomous decision-making (see Carman, 1973). Do dimensions of moral character identified by Hogan (1973) act differentially to conduce (or inhibit) use of drugs in high school and college students? It is plausible that the direct relation of empathy to marijuana smoking among college-age individuals reflects factors that pertain to later rather than early forms of this behavior. Indeed, Carman (1973) has provided suggestive evidence for this notion. He discovered that various indices of drug use among rural high school students correlated nega- tively, if at all, with expressed values for peer affection and intimate interpersonal relationships-probable correlates of empathic disposition. Further consideration of these issues may lead to a more appropriately developmental conceptualization of drug use and its relation to other psychosocial variables.

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