The aim of this study was to determine if adolescents' scores on a 2-item underage alcohol use screener predict risky consequences of past-year alcohol use and other health risk behaviors in a nonclinical, school-based sample of adolescents. A predominantly minority sample of 756 middle and high school students completed in-school tablet-based…

Antisocial peer behavior and low parental knowledge of adolescents' activities are key interpersonal risk factors for adolescent substance use. However, how the magnitude of associations between these risk factors and substance use may vary across adolescence remains less well understood. The present study examined the age-varying associations of…

Associations of popularity with adolescent substance use were examined among 1793 6-8th grade students who completed an in-school survey. Popularity was assessed through both self-ratings and peer nominations. Students who scored higher on either measure of popularity were more likely to be lifetime cigarette smokers, drinkers, and marijuana…

Data from the spring 2010 Minnesota student survey were analyzed in order to quantify the risk for suicide ideation as a function of bullying variability. Other factors available from the survey included alcohol and other drug use, within-family violence and abuse, mental health symptoms. In addition, a factor analysis revealed a protective…

A great deal of time and money has been spent to understand why adolescents abuse alcohol. Some of the most fruitful work considers the social context navigated by adolescents, including family, school, and peer contexts. However, most of this work focuses on differences between adolescents in these contexts. The present study adds to the…

Background: Although rural adolescents use of alcohol is at some of the highest rates nationally, rural adolescent alcohol use has not been studied extensively. This study examines how community attitudes and behaviors are related to adolescent drinking in rural environments. Methods: Data were gathered in 22 rural communities in the Upper Midwest…

The authors test biosocial models that posit interactions between biological variables (testosterone, estradiol, pubertal status, and pubertal timing) and social context variables (family, peer, school, and neighborhood) in predicting adolescent involvement with cigarettes and alcohol in a sample of 409 adolescents in Grades 6 and 8. Models…