NCJ Number
177023
Journal
Journal of Drug Issues Volume: 29 Issue: 1 Dated: Winter 1999 Pages: 37-58
Date Published
1999
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This article evaluates the importance of interviewer and subject effects on cocaine and marijuana use disclosure.
Abstract
The general validity of survey reports of drug use behavior is controversial. Concern with this problem has inspired research into a number of subject, process and design variables which may be associated with the underreporting or editing of drug use. This study evaluates the importance of interviewer and subject effects on cocaine and marijuana use disclosure in a sample of more than 3,000 male juvenile arrestees. Analysts evaluated the viability of Social Attribution and Conditional Social Attribution models of interviewer effects. The viability of alternative models was investigated in the context of comparative analyses excluding and including statistical adjustments for the clustering of responses by interviewers. Interviewer effects were more salient in models predicting marijuana disclosure than in models predicting cocaine disclosure. Logistic regression analyses provided support for Social Attribution and Conditional Social Attribution models of interviewer effects. Models suggested large interviewer cluster effects. Cluster adjustment altered interpretation of effects for both cocaine and marijuana. Subject race/ethnicity effects were salient in models predicting disclosure for both drugs, but were especially large in models predicting cocaine disclosure. Tables, notes, appendix, references