Clusters of Pre- and Early Adolescents with Varying Substance Use Expectancies: Identifying Probabilities of Membership.

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  • Additional Information
    • Peer Reviewed:
      N
    • Source:
      21
    • Subject Terms:
      Adolescents; Drinking; Elementary Secondary Education; Illegal Drug Use; Peer Influence; Preadolescents; Predictor Variables; Prevention; Risk; Smoking; Social Networks; Student Attitudes; Student Behavior; Student Surveys; Substance Abuse
    • Subject Terms:
      Student Opinion Survey
    • Abstract:
      Adolescent drug use in the United States remains higher than that of any other industrialized country. To explore this problem, demographic and psychosocial variables from a survey of 346 pre- and early adolescents were used to predict membership in clusters of students with varying substance use attitudes and expectancies. Cluster analysis produced five clusters of students: "Likely Abstainers,""Gatewayers,""Pleasure Seekers,""Likely Drinkers," and "Risk Takers." Various statistical analyses revealed that peer approval of alcohol, general competence, extent of social network, and non-traditional others predicted membership in the five clusters. The Likely Abstainers were composed of students with the lowest risk on the four variables in the model, whereas the Likely Drinkers were characterized by students with higher risk on those variables. The other clusters were characterized by students with two or more risk factors. The model was significant in predicting cluster membership for a cross-validation sample of 350 pre- and early adolescent students. (MKA)
    • Publication Date:
      1998
    • Accession Number:
      ED419211