The Alcohol‐Related Psychosocial and Behavioral Risks of a Nationally Representative Sample of Adolescents

Abstract

This study, a secondary analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, used a representative sample of 7th-through 12th-grade students enrolled in US public schools between April and December 1995. Data were collected in respondents' homes using trained interviewers. A subset of 4,485 adolescents aged 12-17 were surveyed with regard to alcohol-use practices and related health-risk behavior, interpersonal problems, and demographic characteristics. Results showed adolescent males as significantly more likely to drink at high risk than adolescent females. Among those who drank one or more times in the past year, older adolescents were significantly more likely to report high-risk drinking than younger adolescents. Significantly more high-risk adolescents reported having a hangover, vomiting, regretting a behavior, having trouble with parents, regretting a sexual activity, having dating problems, fighting, having trouble with friends, and experiencing school trouble than did low-risk adolescents. These findings underscore the long-range significance of a coordinated school health program; in particular, school health services, school health instruction, and school health environment. Implications for school-based and community-based prevention and intervention programs are presented.

Daily cigarette smoking among colombian high school students: gender related psychosocial factors

“…Regarding gender, data are consistent with previous reports, that is, the prevalence of DCS is higher in boys than in girls (5,11,(13)(14) However, one research found that girls were most often daily cigarette smokers than boys (7) . Behavioral risks related to DSC, and their strength, are a little different for females and males.…”

“…of a representative sample of 6,504 adolescents residing in the United States, smoked 26-30 days within past month (14) . Other investigations reported everyday cigarette smoking in the previous 30 days.…”

Recent substance use and high levels of psychological distress among secondary school students in New South Wales

“…[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] The strength of the association with high psychological distress found in this study in a school setting was, however, less than that reported for recent substance use in a community sample of teenagers aged 13-15 years with a psychiatric diagnosis based on structured interview. 7 In contrast, the strengths of the associations between high psychological distress and recent substance use are similar to those found for adults and adolescents in Australia and the United States (odds ratio of about 1.5-2.0).…”

“…1 Previous interstate and overseas studies have identified an association between substance use and psychological distress in adolescents. [2][3][4][5] A cross-sectional survey of Victorian secondary school students found that students reporting high levels of anxiety and depression were almost twice as likely to report using tobacco after controlling for potential confounders including year level, sex, alcohol use and parental tobacco use. 6 A United Kingdom study of adolescents aged 13-15 years found that both regular tobacco users and regular alcohol users were four times more likely to have a psychiatric disorder.…”

Adolescent Drinking and High School Dropout

“…This association, however, may be partially or entirely incidental. Adolescent drinkers typically have characteristics that predispose them to poor educational outcomes, such as behavioral and family problems, parental substance use, minimal parental monitoring, and low attachment to school (Borawski et al 2003, Diego et al 2003, Ellickson et al 2001, Maney et al 2002, Sale et al 2003, Silberg et al 2003. Empirical models may not sufficiently control for these factors because they are difficult to measure.…”