Factors Associated with Alcohol Abuse Among Secondary School Students in the United States: A Path Analysis

Background and purpose

The factors of mortality and morbidity among American adolescents have shifted in the recent decades from infectious disease to behavioral etiologies. Adolescents’ high risk and delinquent behaviors are associated with alcohol and substance abuse. Alcohol abuse is generally initiated by adolescents around 8th through 10th grade (Johnston et. al., 2015). Studies show that social capital, ecological factors, and socioeconomic resources have been associated with risk factors for substance abuse among adolescents. Many children experience bullying, rejection, peer pressure, and peer deviant behavior at school as well as after school. It is also noticed that children’s adverse experiences are associated with their maladaptive coping skills, and alcohol abuse is one of those maladaptive skills. Victimized children are at risk of developing the positive attitude towards alcohol, and are at risk of abusing alcohol. Additionally, adolescents’ negative relationship with parents and others are associated with having the positive attitude towards alcohol and the subsequent risk of abusing alcohol. The proposed path analysis has analyzed the effect of victimization and relationship with parents and others on adolescents’ attitude towards alcohol and the risk of abusing alcohol.  

Methods:

The proposed study has used a large secondary data set, the Monitoring the Future: A continuing Study of the Lifestyles and Values of Youth (MTF), 2014. In the MTF 2014, 28,536 students participated from 255 public schools and 46 private schools from the 48 contiguous states in the United States. Data for the MTF was collected from a nationally representative sample using a multi-stage cluster probability sampling method. The proposed study has used composite variables – victimization, relationship with parents and others, perception towards alcohol, and alcohol abuse to analyze the path model.  

Findings:

Data analysis revealed that the theoretical model was a significant predictor of adolescents’ alcohol abuse. In line with previous studies, victimization was a significant predictor of perception towards alcohol and alcohol abuse; however, relationship with parents and others had no statistically significant relationship with alcohol abuse but was a significant predictor of adolescents’ perception towards alcohol. With the mediation of adolescents’ attitude towards alcohol, the relationship with parents and others become a significant predictor of alcohol abuse, whereas victimization remained the significant predictor of adolescents’ alcohol abuse with and without the mediation of attitude towards alcohol. Further, findings show a very important relationship between adolescents’ attitude towards alcohol and alcohol abuse – the relationship was statistically significant but was negative.  

Conclusion and Implications:

The study findings show important relationships of victimization, perception towards alcohol, and the relationship of adolescents with their parents and others to the risk of abusing alcohol. The path analysis provides a good understanding of adolescents’ protective factor, relationship with parents and others, and risk factor, victimization at school, and the impact on their perception towards alcohol and risk of alcohol abuse. An understanding of the path analysis can be helpful for social workers in providing counseling and support to adolescents and presents, and designing in-school and after-school programs to address the risk of alcohol abuse by adolescents.