Psychosocial correlates of alcohol use at two age levels during adolescence

The correlations between self-reported alcohol use by adolescents and peer and parental alcohol use, tolerance of deviance, emotional maladjustment and self-derogation were studied in two independent samples--172 seventh-grade boys, 221 seventh-grade girls, 131 tenth-grade boys and 164 tenth-grade girls in Sample 1, and 166 seventh-grade boys, 149 seventh-grade girls, 120 tenth-grade boys and 129 tenth-grade girls in Sample 2. Regression analyses were performed to identify the relative contribution of each correlate in a prediction formula for alcohol use at the two grade levels and to determine whether the predictors differed at the two grade levels. The results were cross-validated in the two samples and showed that the predictors were similar at the two grade levels, despite the much greater alcohol use by tenth-graders. The major predictors for both grade levels and for both boys and girls were peer and parental alcohol use. Tolerance of deviance contributed to a much lesser degree and emotional maladjustment did not contribute to the prediction equations.