Age-varying effects of adolescent alcohol use

San Jose, A. L. (Alyssa), San Jose, A. L. (Alyssa)¹
¹The Pennsylvania State University

Submission type

Poster only

Scheduled

Hallway, 22-07-2016, 16:00 - 17:00

Keywords

substance use, substance use prevention, prevention, adolescence, alcohol

Summary

Alcohol remains the most widely used substance by adolescents, with the 7.4 million current alcohol users aged 12 to 20 (Johnston et al., 2018; SAMHSA, 2018). Furthermore, the prevalence of alcohol use varies considerably across ages (Evans-Polce et al., 2015; Merline et al., 2008; Chen & Jacobson, 2012, Vasilenko et al., 2017).

The time-varying effect model (TVEM; Tan et al., 2012) is an innovative method that allows flexibility to estimate when disparities are greatest and when crossovers may occur. As TVEM is a new method, more research is needed in all areas, especially regarding time-varying effects of age on substance use, to confirm previous findings and understand the true impacts substance use may have on individuals.

This study aims to identify if alcohol use varies throughout high school using data from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System 2017. Results will inform existing and future prevention programs for adolescent alcohol use. Additionally, by using TVEM as an innovative statistical method, this study will increase understanding of age-varying effects in alcohol use throughout adolescence. Furthermore, using this statistical approach will provide recent, national age trends and disparities in the prevalence of alcohol use across adolescence.