Substance use among adolescents in California: A latent class analysis

Tamika D. Gilreath*, Ron A. Astor, Joey N. Estrada, Renee M. Johnson, Rami Benbenishty, Jennifer Beth Unger

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

45 Scopus citations

Abstract

Data from the California Healthy Kids Survey of 7th, 9th, and 11th graders were used to identify latent classes/clusters of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use (N = 418,702). Analyses revealed four latent classes of substance use, which included nonusers (61.1%), alcohol experimenters (some recent alcohol use; 22.8%), mild polysubstance users (lifetime use of all substances with less than 3 days of recent use; 9.2%), and frequent polysubstance users (used all substances three or more times in the past month; 6.9%). The results revealed that alcohol and marijuana use are salient to California adolescents. This information can be used to target and tailor school-based prevention efforts.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)116-123
Number of pages8
JournalSubstance Use and Misuse
Volume49
Issue number1-2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2014
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Adolescents
  • Alcohol
  • Marijuana
  • Tobacco

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