NCJ Number
219945
Journal
Journal of Child & Adolescent Substance Abuse Volume: 16 Issue: 4 Dated: 2007 Pages: 79-90
Date Published
2007
Length
12 pages
Annotation
The reliability of self-report early alcohol drinking onset (ADO) was studied in two panels of the national Longitudinal Survey of Youth.
Abstract
The analyses found low levels of test-retest reliability in self-reported age at ADO. Within this generally low range, there were variations, depending on the type of coefficient used for the estimation as well as on the age of the respondent when reporting ADO. Children who were ages 10-16 typically had lower reliabilities than the reporting adults who were 17-25 years old. These findings suggest that ADO measures be used and interpreted cautiously. Further, analyses that depend on the recollection of the exact year of ADO or rely on time to occurrence of an event may not be feasible given the impreciseness of ADO recall. Studies of samples with a range of ages should control for respondent's age, and literature reviews that compare ADO studies must take into account possible age differences in their samples. Panel studies that collect ADO measures from the same respondent at different ages should consider which ADO reports to use or how to combine such reports into best estimates. The reliability of self-report ADO was studied by using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) and the Child/Young Adult sample, which consisted of all children born to female respondents included in the NLSY79. This is a large nationally representative sample of youth who were ages 14-22 in 1979 when the survey began. The sample has been followed annually through 1994 and every other year thereafter. Analysis of the reliability of ADO was based on alcohol items reported by 6,215 respondents who reported an age of ADO in both 1982 and 1983. 2 tables and 20 references