Multidimensional self-esteem and alcohol use among Mexican American and White non-Latino adolescents: concurrent and prospective effects

Drinking to Fit in: The Effects of Drinking Motives and Self-Esteem on Alcohol Use among Female College Students

Over the past two decades, rates of alcohol use among female students have risen to meet or even surpass those seen among males. Yet, little is known about factors that play a role in the relationship between drinking motives and alcohol consumption for female college students. The present study examines self-esteem as a moderator in the association between categories of drinking motives and alcohol use in a sample of female college students. Participants included 196 female undergraduates who reported drinking alcohol at least once in the preceding month (M_age= 19.5 years, 88.8% White) at a northeastern public university. Participants completed an online questionnaire assessing self-esteem, drinking motives, and past month alcohol use. Self-esteem was significantly negatively correlated with coping (r=-.40, p<.001) and conformity motives (r=-.22, p=.002) but not enhancement or social motives. Main effects predicting alcohol use were detected for enhancement (b = 1.49, p<.001), coping (b = 1.73, p<.001), and social motives (b = 1.34, p<.001), but not conformity motives or self-esteem. The interaction of conformity motives and self-esteem was significant (b=-0.17, p=.04). Simple slopes analyses revealed that conformity motives were significantly positively related to alcohol consumption for at low (b = 1.53, p=.001), but not high levels (b=-0.39, p=.61) of self-esteem. No other interactions were significant. Assisting female college students with increasing their self-esteem may be an effective component of intervention programs targeting alcohol consumption, particularly among those who report drinking to fit in.

Latent Class Analysis and Predictors of Marijuana Use among Reservation-based American Indian High School Students

American Indian (AI) youth residing on reservations report higher rates of marijuana use compared to national youth. Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to identify unique types of marijuana use among 2,884 AI high school students surveyed from 26 schools across six indigenous geographic regions. Predictors of class membership were then assessed using social, cultural, and individual measures relevant to adolescent substance use. Classes and predictors were examined separately for males and females. Four-class models fit the data best for both male and female AI students. Classes differed by sex, as did predictors. Overall, social predictors related to family and peers and the individual predictor, using marijuana to cope, were the best predictors of class membership. Based on these results, prevention and intervention efforts should provide alternative coping methods for these adolescents who often live in difficult situations, and should focus on encouraging parents to effectively monitor their adolescent children and communicate clear sanctions against marijuana use.

Self-esteem, cultural identification, and substance use among American Indian youth

OBJECTIVES

Determine potential mediating and moderating effects of self-esteem on the relationship between cultural identification and substance use among American Indian (AI) youth.

METHODS

Anonymous surveys were administered to middle and high school AI students assessing levels of last month alcohol and marijuana use, cultural identification, and self-esteem. Structural equation modeling assessed potential mediating and moderating effects of self-esteem on the relationship between AI and white identification on alcohol and marijuana use.

RESULTS

No mediating effects were found for middle school students. Among high school students, no mediating effects were found for alcohol. Among female high school students, a small mediating effect was found between AI identification and marijuana use, with AI identification protecting against use. Across all students, no moderating effects of self-esteem were found.

CONCLUSIONS

The literature on cultural identification and substance use among minority youth is unclear. It was anticipated that consideration of self-esteem as a potential mediator or moderator might help clarify some of the confusion. However, no moderating effects were found and mediating effects were limited to female high school students for marijuana. Consideration should be given to assessing other measures of cultural identification and subscales of self-esteem to confirm that these findings are robust.

The moderating effects of perceived emotional benefits on inhalant initiation among American Indian and white youth

BACKGROUND

Inhalant use co-occurs with emotional distress. Inhalant use may be a means of self-medicating distress, but more recent study focuses on the cognitive appraisal of personal benefits of using substances.

OBJECTIVES

Objectives were to determine whether emotional distress variables predict early versus later initiation of inhalant use, whether such relationships differ between American Indian and white youth, and whether perceived emotional benefits of inhalant use moderates the relationship between emotional distress and stage of inhalant initiation.

METHODS

Data were from a study of 7-12th grade American Indian youth who live on or near reservations. A total of 856 students from 32 schools surveyed from 2009 to 2012, who reported having used inhalants (American Indian = 683; white = 173), were surveyed about age first use of inhalants, levels of emotional distress, and perceived benefits of inhalant use. SEM models were used to assess study objectives.

RESULTS

Depression and anger did not discriminate between early and later initiation. Lower self-esteem related to earlier initiation, but only among American Indian students. Perceived emotional benefits of inhalant use did not moderate the relationship between self-esteem and stage of initiation.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

Among middle school and high school American Indian and white youth living on or near American Indian reservations, emotional distress is not strongly related to stage of inhalant initiation.

SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE

These findings raise questions about the timing and strength of relationship between emotional distress and early inhalant initiation. Prospective studies are need to assess this relationship more fully.

An unexplored ethical issue in clinical research: disclosure of individual findings in the Creando Posibilidades [Creating Possibilities] study

Individual disclosure refers to the presumptive ethical responsibility of an investigator to communicate to a study participant information that was collected as a part of a research study protocol and is specific to the individual. Currently, there are no federal regulatory guidelines specifying the conditions and management of disclosure of health-related individual-specific information. In this report, the authors discuss the challenges associated with individual disclosure in the context of a longitudinal descriptive study. Arguments favoring disclosure and those challenging disclosure as a general ethical duty are presented. Finally, strategies for addressing individual disclosure are discussed using a research exemplar in which risk behaviors related to health outcomes were measured.

Alcohol use and heavy episodic drinking prevalence and predictors among national samples of American eighth- and tenth-grade students

OBJECTIVE

Given the public health impact of adolescent alcohol use and heavy episodic drinking, we sought to identify the prevalence of types of alcohol use among national samples of 8th- and 10th grade American students. In addition, a range of known risk factors was used to predict the most problematic type: heavy episodic use.

METHOD

Monitoring the Future data on lifetime, past-year, and past-30-day alcohol use and on past-2-week heavy episodic drinking were available for 505,668 students from 1991 to 2007 (weighted N = 505,853; 51.5% girls; 65.3% White, 12.3% Black, 11.1% Hispanic). Logistic regression was then used in a representative subsample of 110,130 students to predict heavy episodic drinking in the previous 2 weeks.

RESULTS

In the most recent cohorts, about 1 in 10 8th graders and 1 in 5 10th graders had engaged in heavy episodic drinking in the past 2 weeks. Explanatory variables in logistic regression were largely invariant across cohort, grade level, gender, and race/ethnicity, accounting for 48% of the variance in heavy episodic drinking.

CONCLUSIONS

Heavy episodic drinking continues to be a prevalent behavior among the nation's youth, with consistent risk factors over time, highlighting the continued necessity of effective screening and prevention efforts.

Initiation and continuation of best friends and adolescents’ alcohol consumption: Do self-esteem and self-control function as moderators?

In this three-wave longitudinal survey, we investigated bi-directional longitudinal associations between best friends and adolescents’ alcohol consumption. Additionally, since the relation between best friends and adolescents’ drinking may be stronger if adolescents have not consumed alcohol yet, we examined this relation not only with regard to continuation but also with regard to the initiation of adolescent drinking. We also hypothesized that low levels of self-esteem and self-control in youths would be related to a higher susceptibility to the impact of their best friends’ drinking. Data were used from 433 adolescents and their best friends. Results of SEM analyses did not provide evidence for bi-directional associations between best friends and adolescents’ alcohol use over time. Nevertheless, the results of additional growth curve analyses indicated that adolescents and best friends’ drinking does seem to develop in a similar fashion over time. Adolescents’ self-esteem, self-control, and gender did not moderate longitudinal associations between best friends and adolescents’ drinking. The discussion focuses on methodological and theoretical explanations for the absence of significant longitudinal relations between best friends and adolescents’ drinking.

Self-concept disturbances: cognitive vulnerability for early drinking and early drunkenness in adolescents at high risk for alcohol problems

We tested the hypotheses that adolescents with few positive and many negative self-schemas would drink and get drunk earlier than adolescents with many positive and few negative self-schemas. Adolescents (N=264) from an ongoing prospective family study of alcoholism [Zucker, R. A., Fitzgerald, H., Refior, S., Puttler, L., Pallas, D., Ellis, D. (2000). The clinical and social ecology of childhood for children of alcoholics: Description of a study and implications for a differentiated social policy. In H. Fitzgerald, B. Lester, B. Zuckerman (Eds.), Children of addiction: Research, health, and policy issues (pp. 109-141). New York, NY: Routledge Falmer] were assessed at ages 12 to 14 and again at ages 15 to 17. When considering the combined effects of the number of positive and negative self-schemas, antisociality, and parental alcoholism on drinking outcomes, the number of negative self-schemas directly predicted early drinking onset, whereas the number of positive self-schemas moderated the effects of antisociality on early drunkenness. Moreover, although self-concept properties at baseline did not differentiate level of alcohol involvement at follow-up in mid-adolescence, they did distinguish earlier from later age of onset among those who initiated, with effects tending to be somewhat stronger for boys than girls. Self-schemas appear to be an additional risk factor in the pathway to problem alcohol involvement in adolescence, above and beyond the contributions of such known risk factors as antisocial behavior and parental alcoholism.