Citation

Lynskey MT, Fergusson DM, Horwood LJ. J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry 1998; 39(7): 995-1005.

Affiliation

Christchurch School of Medicine, New Zealand.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1998, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

9804032

Abstract

Methods of structural equation modelling were used to analyse the correlations between reports of tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis use in a birth cohort of New Zealand children studied to the age of 16. This analysis produced three major conclusions: (a) the correlations between tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis use could be explained by a factor representing the individual's vulnerability to substance use; (b) predictors of vulnerability to substance use were the extent to which the individual affiliated with delinquent or substance using peers, novelty seeking, and parental illicit drug use; (c) in the region of 54% of the correlations between substance use behaviours could be predicted from observed risk factors and 46% was attributable to non-observed sources of vulnerability.

Language: en