Replication of factors related to blackout incidence in U.S. high school students: A brief report

Abstract

Alcohol-related blackouts are a common, yet serious consequence that can result from heavy alcohol intake. This study tested a model examining whether factors identified in related samples (i.e., adolescents residing in the U.K. and U.S. college students) predicted blackouts in community-dwelling U.S. high school youth. Participants from a Northeastern U.S. high school with prior alcohol use (Mage = 16.0 years; 48.2% male, 78.0% White) completed a paper-and-pencil assessment including measures of demographics, alcohol and other substance use, externalizing behaviors, and injunctive norms about risky drinking behaviors. Hierarchical logistic regression examined which factors identified for U.K. residing adolescents (Block 1) replicated in the U.S. sample, and whether factors identified in samples of U.S. college students added additional explained variance (Block 2). Blackouts were reported by 35.6% of students. Regression results indicated that two variables previously identified in adolescents, female gender (OR = 3.26) and increased alcohol use (OR = 1.27) were associated with blackouts. College student risk factors of drinking game (DG) participation and, to a lesser degree injunctive norms for passing out, emerged as additional risk factors (ORs = 2.85 and 1.32, respectively), with the final model explaining 39% of the variance in blackouts. This study advances our understanding of blackouts in younger drinkers and identifies the importance of addressing blackouts within the context of intervention programming that addresses cognitions and high risk drinking practices like DGs.