A-SIDE: Video simulation of teen alcohol and marijuana use contexts

This investigation examined the concurrent validity of a new video simulation assessing adolescent alcohol and marijuana decision making in peer contexts (A-SIDE).

One hundred eleven youth (60% female; age 14-19 years; 80% White, 12.6% Latino; 24% recruited from treatment centers) completed the A-SIDE simulation, self-report measures of alcohol and marijuana use and disorder symptoms, and measures of alcohol (i.e., drinking motives and expectancies) and marijuana (i.e., expectancies) cognitions in the laboratory.

Study findings support concurrent associations between behavioral willingness to use alcohol and marijuana on the simulation and current use variables as well as on drinking motives and marijuana expectancies. Relations with use variables were found even when sample characteristics were controlled. Interestingly, willingness to accept nonalcoholic beverages (e.g., soda) and food offers in the simulation were inversely related to recent alcohol and marijuana use behavior.

These findings are consistent with prior work using laboratory simulations with college students and provide preliminary validity evidence for this procedure. Future work is needed to examine the predictive utility of the A-SIDE with larger and more diverse samples of youth.