TY - JOUR
T1 - Self-reported drinking and alcohol-related problems among early adolescents
T2 - Dimensionality and validity over 24 months
AU - Smith, G. T.
AU - McCarthy, D. M.
AU - Goldman, M. S.
PY - 1995
Y1 - 1995
N2 - Objective: Researchers rely on adolescents' self-reports of alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems, despite little evidence concerning their validity. We assessed the reliability and validity of adolescents' self-reports, employing collateral validation and focusing on the understudied transitional years of early adolescence. Method: Subjects were 214 boys and 247 girls who participated in school-wide surveys that assessed drinking, drunkenness and alcohol-related problems each year for 3 years. These measures were validated by collateral (poor) reports and by separate, 7-day drinking calendars. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability were also assessed. Results: Results replicated findings with older adolescents that drinking/drunkenness and alcohol-related problems fall on two partially overlapping dimensions. Scales assessing each dimension had moderate to high internal consistency and high test-retest stability. Correlations with collateral reports were relatively strong for the drinking/drunkenness scale, moderate for a dichotomous variable reflecting the presence or absence of alcohol related problems, and more modest for the alcohol-related problems scale. Correlations with diary reports of drinking behavior were strong for drinking/drunkenness. Results generally replicated across gender and over time. Conclusions: Researchers can have some confidence in the reliability and validity of early adolescents' survey self reports, particularly of alcohol consumption (alcohol-related problems occurred with low base rates, perhaps limiting validity coefficients). Because drinking/drunkenness and alcohol-related problems shared 30% of their variance, factors other than consumption (e.g., personality factors) apparently influenced the experience of alcohol related problems.
AB - Objective: Researchers rely on adolescents' self-reports of alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems, despite little evidence concerning their validity. We assessed the reliability and validity of adolescents' self-reports, employing collateral validation and focusing on the understudied transitional years of early adolescence. Method: Subjects were 214 boys and 247 girls who participated in school-wide surveys that assessed drinking, drunkenness and alcohol-related problems each year for 3 years. These measures were validated by collateral (poor) reports and by separate, 7-day drinking calendars. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability were also assessed. Results: Results replicated findings with older adolescents that drinking/drunkenness and alcohol-related problems fall on two partially overlapping dimensions. Scales assessing each dimension had moderate to high internal consistency and high test-retest stability. Correlations with collateral reports were relatively strong for the drinking/drunkenness scale, moderate for a dichotomous variable reflecting the presence or absence of alcohol related problems, and more modest for the alcohol-related problems scale. Correlations with diary reports of drinking behavior were strong for drinking/drunkenness. Results generally replicated across gender and over time. Conclusions: Researchers can have some confidence in the reliability and validity of early adolescents' survey self reports, particularly of alcohol consumption (alcohol-related problems occurred with low base rates, perhaps limiting validity coefficients). Because drinking/drunkenness and alcohol-related problems shared 30% of their variance, factors other than consumption (e.g., personality factors) apparently influenced the experience of alcohol related problems.
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U2 - 10.15288/jsa.1995.56.383
DO - 10.15288/jsa.1995.56.383
M3 - Article
C2 - 7674672
AN - SCOPUS:0029070221
SN - 0096-882X
VL - 56
SP - 383
EP - 394
JO - Journal of Studies on Alcohol
JF - Journal of Studies on Alcohol
IS - 4
ER -