Alcohol Use Problem Severity and Problem Behavior Engagement Among School-Based Youths in Minnesota

Abstract

This study created an alcohol use problem severity taxonomy and examined its association to engagement in other problem behaviors. Minnesota youths were categorized based on their frequency of alcohol use and DSM-IV alcohol abuse and dependence criteria. Greater alcohol use problem severity was generally associated with higher prevalence of lifetime and regular marijuana use and higher odds of lifetime sexual intercourse and past-year arrest/law trouble. Knowing about variations in adolescent alcohol use and problems may be instrumental in gauging the degree to which youths may also be engaging in a range of other problem behaviors.

KEYWORDS:

• adolescent
• alcohol-related disorders
• classification
• Minnesota
• problem behavior

The research and preparation of this article were supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse grants DA00254 and DA007292 and National Institute on Mental Health grants MH19545 and MH14592.

Notes

Note. For each outcome variable, superscripts that are different refer to statistically significant pair-wise comparisons at p < 0.0018. Superscripts that are alike refer to comparisons that are not statistically significant. For example, a significant difference was found for lifetime marijuana use but not for regular marijuana use comparing participants reporting no alcohol use in lifetime and participants reporting lifetime alcohol use but none in the past year.

^a Reference group for gender is Female.

*p < 0.01, **p < 0.001.