Contributions of the social context to the development of adolescent substance use: a multivariate latent growth modeling approach

This article demonstrates a latent growth curve methodology for analyzing longitudinal data of adolescent substance use. Hypotheses concerning the form of growth in alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use, and covariates influencing the form of growth, were tested. Participants were male and female adolescents (n = 664) assessed at three time points. A common trajectory existed across the developmental period with significant increases in all three substances. Second-order multivariate extensions of the basic latent growth modeling framework suggested that associations among the individual differences parameters, representing growth or change in the various substance use behaviors, could be adequately modeled by a higher-order substance use construct. Inept parental monitoring, parent-child conflict, peer deviance, academic failure, gender, and age, were significant predictors of initial levels and the trajectory of substance use.