Applying the Problem Behavior Theory to Adolescent Drug Use Among a Cross-Sectional Sample of Boys Participating in a Community-Based Youth Organization

ABSTRACT

Background: Drug use remains an important public health concern in the United States, and understanding drug use among young adolescents is vital towards improving the health of the population. Objective: This study applied the Problem Behavior Theory (PBT) to lifetime drug use among a cross-sectional sample of Boy Scouts (N = 770). The PBT provides a conceptual framework for identifying risk and protective factors for adolescent problem behaviors, including drug use. Methods: Scouts reported their drug use and socio-demographics, and were assessed on several risk and protective factors. For analyses, sociodemographic and risk and protective factors were selected according to the framework provided by PBT, and use of each drug was regressed logistically on these selected factors. Final logistic models were assessed for goodness of fit and discriminatory power. Results: The PBT demonstrated discriminatory power for all drugs (Tjur's R² values ≥.29), but fell sharply for illicit drug use (Tjur's R² =.20). There were no consistent correlates of drug use. Conclusions/Importance: The PBT had less explanatory power for illicit drug use compared to tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana, which suggests different risk and protective factors were associated with illicit drug use.

KEYWORDS:

• Problem behavior
• boys
• drugs youth
• adolescents
• drug prevention

Glossary

Perceived grade performance: thoughts related to how well the child is doing academically at school.

Problem behavior: actions that are deemed unacceptable by societal standards or according to legal norms established by conventional society or institutions of authority (Donovan & Jessor, 1985).

Problem Behavior Theory: a psychosocial theory that attempts to explain problem behavior among adolescents by focusing on four systems that influence behavior, which is the following: social structure, perceived environment, personality system, and behavior system. The social structure includes, but is not limited to, factors related to neighborhood characteristics, the socioeconomic background of the parents, and the biological and socioeconomic characteristics of the adolescent. The perceived environment incorporates aspects related to family and peers, and the personality structure includes factors related to adolescents’ social cognitions, personal values, expectations, beliefs, and values. Last, the behavior system includes problem and socially acceptable behavior, which are theorized to act in opposition to each other (Donovan & Jessor, 1985; Jessor & Jessor, 1977).

Rebelliousness: thoughts or feelings related to resisting social or legal norms established by conventional society or institutions of authority.

Religiosity: a comprehensive sociological term that refers to aspects of religious activity, dedication, and beliefs.

Tjur R²: represents the difference in the average of event probabilities between participants who experience the event and those who do not. Values range from 0 (no discriminatory power) to 1 (perfect discriminatory power; Tjur, 2009).

Acknowledgments

We thank Mr. Gene Stone, Mr. Fred Blair, and the scouts and leaders of the Chickasaw Council, Boy Scouts of America for making this work possible.

Declaration of interests

All authors declare they have no competing interests.

Authorship

AA formulated the research questions and hypotheses and conducted analyses. AA and CO prepared the 1st draft of the manuscript. All authors revised the 1st draft and approved the final manuscript.

Ethical approval

Procedures performed involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards established by 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments, and the Institutional Review Boards of the University of Memphis.

Additional information

Funding

The Urban Child Institute(K.D. Ward, P.I)