Risk and Protective Factors for Problematic Drinking in Early Adolescence: A Systematic Approach

Johan Isaksson,Vladislav Ruchkin,Mary Schwab-Stone,Andrew Stickley

doi:10.1007/s10578-019-00925-1

Abstract

Alcohol use during early adolescence is associated with other risk behaviors as well as future health problems. Within the design of a larger prospective research program, a cohort of U.S. inner-city sixth-grade students (N = 1573, mean age = 12.10) were assessed and reassessed in the seventh-grade. Self-reported information was obtained on problems related to alcohol, fixed markers of risk (e.g. sex, age, SES), individual and interpersonal factors (e.g. internalizing and externalizing symptoms) and contextual factors (e.g. substance availability). Alcohol-related problems in seventh grade were foremost predicted by individual and interpersonal factors in the sixth grade including depressive symptoms, conduct problems, a decreased perception of wrongdoing, and affiliation with delinquent peers. In addition, alcohol use in the sixth grade and being of Hispanic or White ethnicity was also associated with subsequent alcohol-related problems. Interventions should be directed towards assessing and treating individual risk factors such as depression and externalizing symptoms.

Highlights

Alcohol use is common during adolescence with most teens having consumed alcohol before 15-years of age [1]
There were no sex differences in overall problems related to alcohol use, either for any particular problem or when examined as a continuous scale reflecting the magnitude of problematic use
In the final model drinking-related problems in year 2 were predicted by having a Hispanic or White ethnicity, alcohol use at baseline assessment, symptoms of depression and conduct problems, a lower perception of wrongdoing and affiliation with delinquent peers. In this longitudinal study we used a systematic approach to investigate whether a broad range of risk and protective factors assessed during the sixth grade predicted alcoholrelated problems when re-assessed in the seventh grade

Summary

Introduction

Alcohol use is common during adolescence with most teens having consumed alcohol before 15-years of age [1]. Given the potentially damaging effects of alcohol misuse during early adolescence, there is an imperative to investigate risk and protective factors associated with problematic drinking from a perspective of prediction and prevention Most studies on this subject have been cross-sectional, a growing number use a prospective design in order to disentangle risk and protective factors while applying different theoretical frameworks [10]. These different frameworks often cover a broad range of variables, which can be grouped into fixed, individual, interpersonal, and contextual risk and protective factors [10, 11]. This systematic approach has mainly focused on alcohol use and age of debut, rather than the detrimental consequences of alcohol use, and the research has mainly

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