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Using Attitudes, Age and Gender to Estimate an Adolescent's Substance Use Risk.

ABSTRACT: PURPOSE:The purpose of this paper is to present a strategy for estimating an individual's risk of alcohol, cigarette and cannabis use that relies on an assessment of an adolescent's age, gender and attitude. METHODOLOGY:The authors assembled surveys from 35,987 11 through 17 year-olds assembled from 36 databases were analysed to examine the relationship between attitude and behaviour. FINDINGS:Attitudes were strongly correlated with concurrent use of alcohol, drunkenness, smoking, and cannabis, with point biserial correlations of -0.555, -0.517, -0.552 and -0.476, respectively. Logistic regression provided a means for using age, gender and attitudes to estimate an individual's risk of engaging in substance use behaviour. Developmental changes in attitudes were estimated by analysing changes in scores associated with percentile rankings for each age and gender group. Projected year-to-year changes in attitude were used as a heuristic for estimating future risk. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS:Analyses relied on cross-sectional panel data. Analyses would benefit from longitudinal data in which age-related changes in attitudes could be more precisely modelled. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS:Information about estimated current and future risk may use useful for motivating the adoption and implementation of effective prevention approaches by parents and care providers. ORIGINALITY:The authors present a novel method for estimating an individual's risk of substance use knowing attitude, age and gender.

SUBMITTER: Hansen WB

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5417548 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Using Attitudes, Age and Gender to Estimate an Adolescent's Substance Use Risk.

Hansen William B WB Hansen Jared L JL

Journal of children's services 20160101 3

<h4>Purpose</h4>The purpose of this paper is to present a strategy for estimating an individual's risk of alcohol, cigarette and cannabis use that relies on an assessment of an adolescent's age, gender and attitude.<h4>Methodology</h4>The authors assembled surveys from 35,987 11 through 17 year-olds assembled from 36 databases were analysed to examine the relationship between attitude and behaviour.<h4>Findings</h4>Attitudes were strongly correlated with concurrent use of alcohol, drunkenness, s ...[more]

PMID: 28479929

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Project description:IntroductionExposure to violence victimization may help explain disparities of substance use among gender-nonconforming youth (i.e., those whose gender expression differs from societal expectations).MethodsIn 2015, three large urban school districts (2 in California and 1 in Florida) conducted a Youth Risk Behavior Survey that included the assessment of gender expression among a racially/ethnically diverse population-based sample of 6,082 high school students. Five categories of violence victimization were assessed (felt unsafe at school, threatened or injured with a weapon at school, bullied at school, electronically bullied, and forced sexual intercourse). In 2019, the effect of violence victimization on substance use disparities was examined by calculating sex-stratified prevalence ratios by gender nonconformity, adjusted for sexual identity, race/ethnicity, and grade (adjusted prevalence ratio 1 [APR1]), and comparing these with prevalence ratios adjusted for those variables plus violence victimization (adjusted prevalence ratio 2 [APR2]).ResultsAmong female students, only being threatened or injured with a weapon was significantly (p<0.05) associated with gender nonconformity and there were no substance use disparities by gender nonconformity. Among male students, every category of violence victimization was more prevalent among gender-nonconforming than among gender-conforming students and most substance use categories demonstrated significant gender nonconformity disparities. After controlling for violence victimization, these disparities decreased but remained statistically significant for the use of cocaine (APR1=2.84 vs APR2=1.99), methamphetamine (APR1=4.47 vs APR2=2.86), heroin (APR1=4.55 vs APR2=2.96), and injection drug use (APR1=7.90 vs APR2=4.72).ConclusionsSchool-based substance use prevention programs may benefit from strategies that support gender diversity and reduce violence victimizations experienced by gender-nonconforming students, by providing a safe and supportive school environment.

Dataset Information

Using Attitudes, Age and Gender to Estimate an Adolescent's Substance Use Risk.

Publications

Using Attitudes, Age and Gender to Estimate an Adolescent's Substance Use Risk.

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