Adolescent problem drinking. Psychosocial correlates in a national sample study.

Abstract

Data from 13,222 junior-senior high school students questioned in the National Study of Adolescent Drinking Behavior, Attitudes and Correlates were used in a multivariate analysis to develop a profile of the variance in reported adolescent drinking behavior and to assess the usefulness of 3 systems of explanatory variables (the personality, the perceived environment and the behavior systems) in predicting problem behaviors. Of the 7481 who were at least moderate drinkers, 29.3% were classified as problem drinkers using the authors'' primary criteria-at least 6 times drunk in the past year, or negative consequences 2 or more times in at least 3 situations: 2 alternative criteria yielded similar psychosocial profiles. The problem drinkers differed from the others in the expected direction on essentially every measure which accounted for nearly 1/3 of the variance in the problem drinking criterion. The perceived environment predictors accounted for a larger proportion of the variance than did the personality predictors. The environment measures showed greater predictive power than the personality measures. The profile developed applied to both sexes and to 5 different ethnic subsamples. Rather than an isolated activity, the behaviors were part of a general adaptation to self, others and circumstances. Using the 14 variables in total multiple regression analyses, multiple correlations of .56 for boys and .55 for girls were found in relation to the primary criterion for the problem drinking group.