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Watching the young use illicit drugs

Direct experience, exposure to television and the stereotyping of adolescents' substance use

JURGEN MINNEBO is strategic advisor to the VRT, the Flemish public broadcasting corporation. He holds a Ph.D. in the social sciences and has been involved in media research in general and television research in particular since 1997. His research focuses mainly on the effects and uses and gratifications of television use in populations of adolescents and crime victims. Address: Leuven School for Mass Communication Research, Faculty of Social Sciences, K.U. Leuven, E. Van Evenstraat 2A, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium. [email: Jurgen.minnebo{at}telenet.be]

STEVEN EGGERMONT

STEVEN EGGERMONT, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral fellow of the K.U. Leuven Research Fund at The Leuven School for Mass Communication Research, Belgium, and a visiting lecturer at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. His research focuses on the relationship between media use patterns and developmental processes in the life span and on the media's effects on emotional, mental, and physical health in young people. Address: Leuven School for Mass Communication Research, Faculty of Social Sciences, K.U. Leuven, E. Van Evenstraat 2A, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium. [email: Steven.Eggermont{at}soc.kuleuven.be]

The study examines whether more television viewing contributes to negative perceptions of young people's behaviour with regard to substance use. This hypothesis is tested among middle-aged and elderly people, for whom television might be the primary source of information about youth. In addition, the study explores whether this relationship may be dependent upon respondents' direct experience and educational level. Correlational analyses and analyses of covariance performed on a sample of 246 people aged over 30 indicate that the relationship between television exposure and drug use estimations is curvilinear. It also showed to be moderated by respondents' educational level but not by their direct experience with adolescents. The interrelated impact of television viewing and education is discussed.

Key Words: youth • drug use • television • media effects • cultivation theory • Belgium

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