Effects of voluntary memberships and volunteering on alcohol and tobacco use across the life course: Findings from the German Socio-Economic Panel

Social participation and in particular social capital (i.e., at the collective level, social cohesion, trust, and reciprocity; at the individual level, embeddedness in social groups and access to group resources; Coleman, 1988; Putnam, 1993) can affect substance use both positively and negatively via various pathways, including social support, influence, and engagement (Berkman et al., 2000; Umberson et al., 2010) and social contagion (Skog, 1985; Villalonga-Olives and Kawachi, 2017). For instance, social networks that encourage a healthy lifestyle (social influence), create supportive environments that buffer against stress (social support), and offer meaningful identities and activities (social engagement) will probably reduce the prevalence of risky substance use in their members (Berkman et al., 2000; Umberson et al., 2010; Youniss et al., 1999).
Source: Drug and Alcohol Dependence - Category: Addiction Authors: Tags: Full length article Source Type: research