19 ALCOHOL USE AMONG LOWER SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Abstract

This study investigated patterns of alcohol use and attitudes towards drinking among lower SES high school students. A pretested, 28-item self-administered questionnaire, specially constructed for this study's population, was distributed at two Cleveland high schools. Of the 1,547 students present the day of this study, 1,096 satisfactorily completed the questionnaire. 49% of the final sample were male, 51%, female; 71% were black, 23% white, 6% other; X age=16.7 yrs. Convergent validity estimates ranged from .51 to .82 (p<.0001). Approximately 15% of students who had ever used alcohol reported taking their first full drink at 9 yrs. of age or younger. About 1 in 5 students indicated being drunk at least 3 times within the past 2 mos. However, only 1% of respondents reported their drinking posed a significant problem for them. Reliable correlations (p<.001) were achieved between the number of times drunk and number of drinking friends (.39), positive attitudes towards drinking (.47), number of reasons for drinking (.43), age of first drink (−.28), parental drinking patterns (.20) and religiosity (−.27). A multiple regression using 6 independent variables accounted for 46% of the variance in reported drunkenness (F=90.50; p<.001). The results suggest unacceptably high levels of alcohol misuse (20%) in this study's sample and that screening efforts with adolescent populations should not depend upon self-reports of drinking problems (1%) to identify alcohol abusing youth.

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