Social learning theory, drug use, and American Indian youths: A cross-cultural test

Contemporary delinquency theories have been challenged as being biased by inherent cultural myopia, even though there have been few tests of these theories involving samples that share all theoretically important characteristics except cultural heritage. In particular, recent studies of delinquency among American Indians suggest that the central constructs of these explanatory models may operate differently among Indians or may translate poorly into the “Indian experience.” Using a census of rural American Indian and Caucasian youths who lived close to one another, we examined the empirical link between key social learning theory constructs and self-reported deviant behavior. Although there were some intergroup differences, the selected theoretical constructs yielded considerable insights into the level of self-reported youthful misbehavior, in this instance alcohol and marijuana use, of both subgroups.