W A Canter | PubMed Health

PubMed1994

Can educational programs affect teenage drinking? A multivariate perspective.

Of various means to prevent alcohol-related problems among adolescents, school-based educational approaches are very prevalent. The potential effectiveness of such programs will be limited, however, if teenage drinking is determined by factors beyond the influence of school-based interventions, such as demographic characteristics or quality of family environment. On the other hand, educational programs would have greater potential efficacy if teenage drinking is influenced mainly by factors more amenable to change, such as characteristics of individual adolescents like their alcohol expectancies or social reasoning. We evaluated in this study whether drinking among high school students was related more to factors "unchangeable" versus "changeable" by school-based intervention. We found that drinking varied with different types of "unchangeable" and "changeable" factors for male and female students. Implications for alcohol education programs are discussed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1989

A path analysis of an adolescent drinking behavior model derived from problem behavior theory.

The interrelationships between composite variables comprised of demographics, socialization, personality, perceived environment, conventional and problem behaviors, and their combined mediational influences on adolescent drinking behavior are examined. Students randomly sampled from four suburban, metropolitan-area high schools (N = 499) were administered the 250-question Survey of Underage Drinking Styles. All 12 composite variables, derived from the survey, were arranged in a causal model and submitted to a confirmatory path analysis. Data were analyzed by multiple regression procedures. According to the present model, a powerful pathway through to drinking may begin with family interaction problems, which may lead to a reduction in the adolescent's social coping skills. A reduction in the adolescent's coping skills may lead to a compensatory belief that alcohol improves mental and physical functions and an increased affiliation with and acceptance of the peer group's attitude and behavior toward consuming alcohol as a replacement coping skill. The adolescent's drinking may then increase as a result of the affiliative need to conform to peer group pressure.

Adolescent↗