Self-report stability of adolescent substance use: are there differences for gender, ethnicity and age?

doi:10.1016/S0376-8716(00)80004-6

Drug and Alcohol Dependence

Volume 60, Issue 1, 1 July 2000, Pages 19-27

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0376-8716(00)80004-6 Get rights and content

Abstract

This study used the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and is the first to examine a 2-year report stability of substance use among adolescents while stratifying for gender, ethnicity, and age. This study examined lifetime use and age at onset report stability, and the internal consistency of reports while excluding nonusers and incident cases (respondents who may have initiated substance use between the two reporting periods) from the analyses. Report agreement of lifetime use for each substance was over 80% and was highest among alcohol users and lowest for cigarette and marijuana users. Report agreement was higher for female compared to male cigarette users. External consistency of lifetime use of cigarettes and marijuana was higher for whites compared to Hispanic or African American adolescents. Internal consistency was high but lifetime use reports were more stable than age at onset reports.

References (17)

B.A. Prusoff et al.
Lifetime prevalence and age of onset of psychiatric disorders: recall 4 years later
J. Psych. Res.
(1988)
A.M. Shillington et al.
Self-report stability for substance use over 10 years: data from the St. Louis Epidemiological Catchment Study
Drug Alc. Dep.
(1995)
L.S. Aiken
Retrospective self-reports by clients differ from original reports: implications for the evaluation drug treatment programs
Intern. J. Add.
(1986)
S.L. Bailey et al.
The characterization of inconsistencies in self-reports of alcohol and marijuana use in a longitudinal study of adolescents
J. Stud. Alc.
(1992)
P.C. Baker et al.
(1993)
Z. Barnea et al.
The reliability and consistency of self-reports on substance use in a longitudinal study
Br. J. Add.
(1987)
L.B. Cottler et al.
The discrepancy interview protocol: a method for evaluating and interpreting discordant survey responses
Int. J. Methods Psychiatr. Res.
(1994)
M. Delgado
Hispanics/Latinos

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (108)

An investigation into symptoms of depression and anxiety and emotion regulation among older adolescents from low-income settings in South Africa
2024, Comprehensive Psychiatry
Mental health conditions (MHC) among adolescents in low- and middle-income countries, including South Africa, are estimated to be high. Adaptive emotion regulation (ER) skills can protect against MHC among adolescents. In South Africa, there is limited adolescent mental health prevalence data as well as little understanding of the associations between MHC and ER among adolescents. This study aimed to address these gaps by describing the psychosocial characteristics of older South African adolescents from low-income settings as well as investigating associations between depression and anxiety symptoms and ER.
We selected 12 schools in collaboration with two NGOs. Learners aged 15–18-years were recruited to complete a tablet-based survey. ER, depression, anxiety, and other psychosocial measures were included. Two multiple linear regression models were used to determine associations between depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, other psychosocial factors, and ER.
Of the 733 participants from 12 Western Cape schools, 417 (56.90%) screened at risk for clinically significant anxiety symptoms, 423 (57.70%) participants for depression symptoms, 229 (31.40%) participants for PTSD symptoms and 263 (35.90%) for risky alcohol use. Depression and anxiety scores were found to be significantly positively correlated with ER difficulties and adolescents struggled most with identifying and utilizing adaptive ER strategies. The adjusted linear regression model reported that female gender, clinically significant depressive, anxiety, post-traumatic stress symptoms and risky-alcohol use were all significantly associated with poorer ER scores, while self-esteem was significantly associated with better ER scores.
These findings contribute to the South African adolescent mental health literature and to the research gap on the links between depression and anxiety and ER. Future research should consider further exploration of the relationships between psychosocial factors and ER to inform the urgent development and testing of appropriate adolescent interventions in this setting.
Prevalence and potential etiology of youth substance use in Costa Rica: Findings from the Third National Youth Survey
2023, Children and Youth Services Review
Substance use is an enduring and significant public health problem among Costa Rican youth. However, scant research has been done to understand the causes of youth substance use in the Costa Rican context. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted secondary analyses of the most recent (i.e., 2018) national-level youth data to explore the prevalence and potential etiologic factors related to substance use among Costa Ricans' aged 15–24. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were employed to assess the association between potential sociodemographic and contextual factors and lifetime alcohol, cigarette, marijuana, and other illegal drug use. Findings showed that the most frequently used substance was alcohol, followed by cigarettes, marijuana, and other illegal drugs. Sex, age, geographical regions, educational levels, nativity, community involvement, sexual victimization, discrimination, and recreational internet use were etiologic factors related to use. Implications for further research and prevention efforts within Costa Rica are discussed.
Gene-by-peer-environment interaction effects on cigarette, alcohol, and marijuana use among US high school students of European Ancestry*
2022, Social Science and Medicine
Research has shown that adolescents' substance use behavior is determined not only by individual characteristics but also by peer environments, and an emerging literature in social genomics has also found that individual genotypes moderate peer effects on egos' substance use. However, the previous literature on genetic by peer environment (GxPE) interaction effects is limited by the use of genetic measures with limited power and a lack of focus on causality. Based on a sample of about 4000 adolescents of European Ancestry from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, this study utilizes polygenic scores to examine GxPE interactions between ego's genetics and peers' cigarette, alcohol, and marijuana use. The results show peers' cigarette and marijuana use positively affect ego's substance use, and peer effects are stronger when the ego is genetically predisposed to substance use. However, genetic propensities toward risk tolerance are found to weaken the peer effects on the ego's marijuana use. Overall, our findings provide new evidence for the existence of GxPE effects on adolescent substance use and reveal the multidimensional nature of GxPE effects.
What is the prevalence of drug use in the general population? Simulating underreported and unknown use for more accurate national estimates
2022, Annals of Epidemiology
Citation Excerpt :
National estimates of drug use based on self-reported survey data are known to suffer from misclassification as a result of both intentional and unintentional underreporting. However, misclassification of drug use does not occur randomly and, given known correlates of measurement error and their associated misclassification probabilities, more accurate prevalence estimates can be obtained [4,31,58–61]. Using mathematical modeling, we demonstrated how the sensitivity of self-reported drug use by demographic correlates can be estimated in a study sample and presented an algorithm that can be applied to correct the estimated prevalence of drug use in the total underlying population for underreporting.
To outline a method for obtaining more accurate estimates of drug use in the United States (US) general population by correcting survey data for underreported and unknown drug use.
We simulated a population (n = 100,000) reflecting the demographics of the US adult population per the 2018 American Community Survey. Within this population, we simulated the “true” and self-reported prevalence of past-month cannabis and cocaine use by using available estimates of underreporting. We applied our algorithm to samples of the simulated population to correct self-reported estimates and recover the “true” population prevalence, validating our approach. We applied this same method to 2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) data to produce a range of underreporting-corrected estimates.
Simulated self-report sensitivities varied by drug and sampling method (cannabis: 77.6%–78.5%, cocaine: 14.3%–22.1%). Across repeated samples, mean corrected prevalences (calculated by dividing self-reported prevalence by estimated sensitivity) closely approximated simulated “true” prevalences. Applying our algorithm substantially increased 2018 NSDUH estimates (self-report: cannabis = 10.5%, cocaine = 0.8%; corrected: cannabis = 15.6%–16.6%, cocaine = 2.7%–5.5%).
National drug use prevalence estimates can be corrected for underreporting using a simple method. However, valid application of this method requires accurate data on the extent and correlates of misclassification in the general US population.
The prevalence and correlates of tobacco use among 7-9th grade students in Bangladesh
2019, Children and Youth Services Review
Rising tobacco use (TU) among youth aged 15–24 is a public health concern globally, especially in developing countries. This study examined the correlates of ever and current TU among 7-9th grade students in Bangladesh, accounting for school- and grade-level variations. A complete case analysis was performed of 3150 students in grades 7–9 (age range 11–17 years) from the 50 schools surveyed in the 2013 Bangladesh Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS). Factors associated with TU were analysed using multilevel logistic regression. The prevalence of ever TU (ETU) and current TU (CTU) was 19% and 7%, respectively. TU was associated with higher age, male gender, and receipt of >50 Bangladeshi Taka (BDT) per week as pocket money. TU was also statistically significantly associated with seeing others smoking at home (ETU: adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 2.47; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.01 to 3.06 and CTU: AOR = 2.43; 95% CI = 1.74 to 3.38) or other places (ETU: AOR = 1.62; 95% CI = 1.26 to 2.10 and CTU: AOR = 2.96; 95% CI = 1.81 to 4.84), and receipt of tobacco products from friends (ETU: AOR = 1.70; 95% CI = 1.06 to 2.74; and CTU: AOR = 3.72; 95% CI = 2.11 to 6.56). Students who supported banning smoking in public places and who believed “smoke from others' tobacco use is harmful” had lower odds of being CTU. Substantial school-to-school and grade-to-grade variation were observed in TU among students. Grades 7–9 students' TU is related to age and exposures indicative of tobacco-related social and normative influences in Bangladesh. As a public health priority, TU among grades 7–9 students requires the implementation of integrated social-ecological intervention strategies targeting both behaviour and the environmental contexts that shape behaviour.
Male-female differences in the onset of heavy drinking episode soon after first full drink in contemporary United States: From early adolescence to young adulthood
2018, Drug and Alcohol Dependence
Globally, there is a male excess in the occurrence of heavy drinking once alcoholic beverages are consumed and some new evidence that this ‘gender gap’ might be null among underage drinkers. Here, we estimate age-specific male-female differences in heavy drinking episode (HDE) incidence across the first eight calendar-quarters after first full drink.
Study population is non-institutionalized civilians in the United States (2006–2014). Standardized audio computer-assisted self-interviews were used to assess the date of first full drink and the date of first HDE (i.e., 5+ drinks on one occasion) among ∼33,000 12-to-21-year-old newly incident drinkers (all with 1st full drink and HDE evaluated within 24 months of drinking onset). Time-to-HDE survival analyses are used to estimate age-specific male-female ratios in the hazard of HDE onset.
We found that among early adolescent new drinkers (drinking onset at age 11–14), the newly incident drinking females progress to HDE more quickly than males (HR = 1.3, 95% CI = 1.1, 1.6). In contrast, male excess risk is observed when drinking starts at or after age 15 years. For underage drinkers, age-specific hazard ratios (HR) depend upon age at first full drink.
Based on recent survey data from the US, this study’s survival analyses support early adolescent female excess in the onset of HDE. When drinking starts at or after age 15 years, a male excess becomes apparent within two years since first full drink. Future studies may probe any sex-specific mechanisms toward the rapid onset of HDE at different age groups.

View all citing articles on Scopus

View full text

Self-report stability of adolescent substance use: are there differences for gender, ethnicity and age?

Abstract

J. Psych. Res.

Drug Alc. Dep.

Retrospective self-reports by clients differ from original reports: implications for the evaluation drug treatment programs

Intern. J. Add.

The characterization of inconsistencies in self-reports of alcohol and marijuana use in a longitudinal study of adolescents

J. Stud. Alc.

The reliability and consistency of self-reports on substance use in a longitudinal study

Br. J. Add.

The discrepancy interview protocol: a method for evaluating and interpreting discordant survey responses

Int. J. Methods Psychiatr. Res.

Hispanics/Latinos