Psychosocial correlates of alcohol use at two age levels during adolescence.

Abstract

The correlations between self-reported alcohol use by adolescents and peer and parental alcohol use, tolerance of deviance, emotional maladjustment and self-derogation were studied in 2 independent samples: 172 seventh-grade boys, 221 seventh-grade girls, 131 tenth-grade boys and 164 tenth-grade girls in sample 1, and 166 seventh-grade boys, 149 seventh-grade girls, 120 tenth-grade boys and 129 tenth-grade girls in sample 2. Regression analyses were performed to identify the relative contribution of each correlate in a prediction formula for alcohol use at the 2 grade levels and to determine whether the predictors differed at the 2 grade levels. The results were cross-validated in the 2 samples and showed that the predictors were similar at the 2 grade levels, despite the much greater alcohol use by 10th-graders. The major predictors for both grade levels and for both boys and girls were peer and parental alcohol use. Tolerance of deviance contributed to a much lesser degree and emotional maladjustment did not contribute to the prediction equations.