Citation

Long KA, Boik RJ. Nurs. Res. 1993; 42(2): 79-86.

Affiliation

College of Nursing, Montana State University, Bozeman.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1993, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

8455992

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to describe the prevalence and correlates of alcohol use and to examine the ability to predict alcohol use among rural sixth- and seventh-grade children. The sample consisted of 625 children from six schools in small Montana towns. Self-administered questionnaires contained measures of sociodemographic characteristics, self-concept, school attitudes, beliefs about the effects of alcohol, and alcohol use. Fifty-eight percent of the children reported using alcohol. Children's beliefs about alcohol were significantly correlated with alcohol use. Logistic regression analysis failed to identify a model having adequate sensitivity and specificity for classifying sixth- and seventh-grade students as "users" and "nonusers" based on variables assessed in Grades 3 and 4. Nevertheless, holding other variables constant, children who displayed both negative self-concept and negative school attitudes in Grades 3 and 4 were most likely to use alcohol in Grades 6 and 7.

Language: en