Relationship of Alcohol Use to Delinquency and Illicit Drug Use in Adolescents: Gender, Age, and Racial/Ethnic Differences

• NCJ Number: 195884
• Journal: Journal of Drug Issues Volume: 32 Issue: 1 Dated: Winter 2001 Pages: 153-178
• Author(s): Grace M. Barnes; John W. Welte; Joseph H. Hoffman,
• Editor(s): Bruce Bullington
• Date Published: 2002
• Length: 26 pages
• Grant Number(s): 270-92-0005; R21 AA11263
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Health and Human Services; US Dept of Health and Human Services
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article discusses the study of the possible link of alcohol use to other substance use and delinquency in adolescence, with results indicating that early initiation into alcohol use is likely to affect development of further alcohol abuse, other substance use, and delinquency.

Abstract

A self-administered questionnaire was given to 19,321 students in 7th through 12th grade in 150 randomly selected New York State secondary schools in 1994. It examined the extent to which the relationships between alcohol and other substance use and delinquency varied among representative adolescent subgroups defined by gender, age, and race/ethnicity. This study also examined whether or not these relationships between problem behaviors varied for males and females, younger and older adolescents, and adolescents from various racial/ethnic subgroups in the student population sampled. The two dependent variables measured were delinquency and illicit drug use. The independent variables measured were demographics, family structure, urbanicity, alcohol consumption, frequency of five-plus drinks, and age of first use of alcohol. The analysis included separate hierarchical regression analysis performed with delinquency and illicit drug use as the dependent variable with the independent variable entered sequentially one at a time, after which two-way interaction terms between alcohol variables and demographic variables were entered as a block to test for differences in the relationship between delinquency and alcohol measures and between illicit drug use and the alcohol measures among various demographic subgroups. Some differences reported between racial/ethnic groups were that Asian youth showed the lowest levels on every problem behavior, and American Indian youth showed the highest levels of each problem indicator. Overall results indicated that early initiation into alcohol use was likely to affect development of further alcohol abuse, other substance use, and delinquency. Tables, figures, and references