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Abstract
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OBJECTIVE: Previous research based on Problem-Behavior Theory has found that early age of onset of substance use to be associated with engaging in multiple health risk behaviors among high school students. It is not known if these relationships begin during early adolescence.
METHODS: A modified version of the CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Survey was administered to 2,227 6th-8th grade students attending 53 randomly selected middle schools in NC. A Health Risk Behavior Scale (HRBS) was constructed from 16 behaviors, including indicators of violence and weapon carrying; current substance use; nonuse of helmets when biking, rollerblading, or skate boarding; not wearing a seat belt; riding with a driver who had been drinking; and suicide plans. The scale had a mean of 4.1 (SD=2.7, range=0-15), and had an internal reliability coefficient of.74. The independent variables included first use of cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine at age 11 or earlier; actual age of onset of each substance; race/ethnicity; family composition; gender; school grade; academic ranking; and older age for school grade. The data were analyzed with ANOVA, Spearman's r, and multiple linear regression.
RESULTS: All the independent variables were found to be associated (p<.005) with the HRBS during bivariate analyses. When entered into a multiple regression model, having smoked at age 11 or earlier accounted for 21.9% of the variation in the HRBS. Male gender, early marijuana use, older age, lower academic rank, early cocaine use, white race, and living in a one parent family explained an additional 19.1% of variation in the model (adjusted R2=.41, p<.0001). When the actual ages of onset of the use of substances were analyzed, in order of magnitude, age of onset of smoking, age of onset of alcohol use, male gender, age of onset of marijuana use, age, lower academic ranking, age of onset of cocaine use, and white race accounted for 54.3%(p<.0001) of the variation in the HRBS.
CONCLUSION: Even when considering sociodemographic factors, early age of onset of cigarette smoking was the strongest correlate of the number of risk behaviors these young adolescents engaged in. Early onset of use of other substances was also associated with a clustering of health risk behaviors among this sample of middle school students. The findings suggest that screening for early experimentation with tobacco and other substance use will help identify young adolescents at increased risk for engaging in multiple health risk behaviors.
Keywords: Cannabis impaired driving; DUID; Ethanol impaired driving
Language: en |