Research Papers

Student Alcohol Use and Perceived Problems with Peers and Adults Chris Ringwalt, James Palmer

ABSTRACT: The authors examined the relationship between students’ use of alcohol and the problems they experience with friends their own age and with four groups of adults, including the students’ teachers or principal, police, parents or family, and adults in the neighborhood. Patterns among students’ problems with friends and adults, and problems experieiiced by students who use alcohol, frequently get drunk, and frequently come to school drunk are explored. Using a stratit’ied random cluster sample, 10,259 seventh through 12th grade North Carolina students were surveyed in spring 1987. For this study, the sample was limited to 6,526 students who reported drinking. No clear patterns emerged among the diffrent groups of individuals with whom students could have problems, revealing a lack of coordinated intervention efforts among these groups. It was evident that teachers failed to detect and confront students who frequently come to school tfrunk. The need for increased intervention efforts is discussed. (J Sch Health 1989;59(1):31-33)

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcohol- A ism special report drew a useful distinction be- tween alcoholics and alcohol abusers.’ Alcoholics were defined as those with symptoms of alcohol dependence such as memory loss, binge drinking, and withdrawal symptoms. Alcohol abusers were those who showed no dependency svmptoms but who “experience negative social or personal consequences of alcohol use.”’ For adolescent alcohol abusers, the report continued, negative social consequences included problems at school, with parents, or with law enforcement.

While the literature frequently alludes to the social consequences of adolescent relationships among the types of social problems student drinkers experience have yet to be explored systematically. This omission is particularly surprising because the effect of these problems, or the fear of them, may serve to inhibit students’ abuse of alcohol. As noted elsewhere,6 behav- ior is now generally thought to be affected by its anticipated consequences.

This study determined the degree to which the use of alcohol by junior and senior high school students resulted in problems with friends their own age and with adults who are likely to be important to them. Spe- cifically, patterns among drinking students’ problems with friends and adults, and problems experienced by students who use alcohol, frequently get high or drunk, and frequently come to school high or drunk are examined.

METHOD Sample

The study sample was derived from a survey of 10,259 seventh through 12th grade students enrolled in

~ ~ ~ ~~

Chris Ringwcilt, DrPH; and James Palmer, EdD, Alcohol and Drug Defense Division North Carolina Dept. of Education, 210 N. Dawson SI., Ediicatron Annex 11, Raleigh, NC 276034712, Thrs article was sirbrniited September 12, 1988, and accepted for publica- tion November 21 1988.

North Carolina public schools. The survey included questions about students’ use of substances, conse- quences of substance use, and related beliefs and atti- tudes. Students were selected for the survey, which was conducted in spring 1987, by means of a random cluster design. The sample was evenly split between males (50.2%) and females (49.8%), and 72.2% were white, 24.0% black, and 3.8% Native Americans, Asians, and Hispanics.

Measures Students were asked how often in the past year they

had either gotten drunk or very, very high. They also were asked how often they had come to school high or drunk. Responses Were scored as 0 (never), 1 (once), 2 (2-10 times a year), or 3 (more than 10 times a year).

Students also were asked how often in the past year their drinking had caused problems with teachers or principal, friends their age, police, parents or family, or adults in their neighborhood. Responses to each ques- tion were scored as indicated previously.

Data Analysis Spearman correlation coefficients were calculated to

determine the nature of patterns among the problems students experienced with their friends and with the four groups of adults. Spearman correlations were used be- cause of the ordinal nature of the variables used for the analysis.

To assess the nature of problems students exper- ienced with friends and adults, the data pertaining to each of the five groups of friends or adults were scored as dichotomous (such as, no problems or at least one problem). Next, a new dichotomous variable was creat- ed to represent whether a student had a problem with any of the five groups of individuals identified. To cal- culate the percentages of students who encountered problems with friends or adults, three sets of students were examined.

To examine problems of students who reported any

Journal of School Health January 1989, Vol. 59, No. 1 31

drinking in the year prior to the survey, the study's entire sample of student drinkers (Sample 1) was used. To determine problems of students who got drunk fre- quently or who frequently came to school drunk, the sample was limited first to the subset of those who reported getting drunk at least 11 times in the previous year (Sample 2). Then, the sample was limited further to students in this latter group who reported coming to school drunk at least 11 times in the previous year (Sample 3). The derivation of these three samples is depicted in Figure 1.

Sample 1

Student drinkers

N = 6,526

Figure 1 Study Samples

r--- Sample 3

students who frequently come to school high or drunk

N = 252

Figure 2 Problems Experienced Overall

701 I

- c ru 0 a

60 _ ..................... 50 ......................

40 - ..................... 30 _ .....................

.......................................................................................

.....................................................................................

...........................................................

Friend Police Parent Anyone

.......

.......

.......

.......

....... I .......

USE ALCOHOL DRUNK DRUNK AT SCHOOL

RESULTS Spearman correlations among students' problems

with the five different groups of friends and adults were relatively modest (Table 1). No clear pattern of prob- lems emerged. Students who encountered a problem with one group were somewhat unlikely to experience a problem with another.

Figure 2 displays the problems experienced by stu- dents who reported in the year prior to the survey they had used alcohol (Sample l), had got drunk or very, very high at least 11 times (Sample 2), and had come to school high or drunk at least 11 times (Sample 3). Samples 2 and 3 represented 16.0% and 3.9% of Sample 1 , respectively, or 10.2% and 2.5%, respectively, of the total number of students originally surveyed, which included nondrinkers as well as drinkers.

DISCUSSION Among student drinkers, 29.4% experienced a prob-

lem they believed resulted directly from their drinking with at least one of the groups specified (friends, teachers, principals, police, parents or family, and adults in the neighborhood). The percentage increased to 63.4% and 63.5% for students who frequently got drunk or came to school drunk, respectively. As alarm- ing as these figures are, it may be of greater concern that more than one-third of students who frequently got drunk or who regularly came to school drunk reported they did not experience problems with any of the groups or individuals presented to them.

A compelling need exists to educate these groups about the signs of problem drinking and to confront students who present these symptoms. Education of this nature would be particularly pertinent for the adoles- cents themselves. Several investigations have revealed that adolescents are especially sensitive to the standards of their peer g r o ~ p . ~ . ~ ~ ~ - ' ~

As expected, students who frequently came to school drunk were much more likely to experience difficulties with teachers and police than were students who got drunk frequently. However, it should be noted that teachers did not detect, or if they detected failed to con- front, 80% of students who regularly came to school drunk. It also is a cause for concern that students coming to school drunk were more likely to experience problems with police (29.8%) than with their teachers or principal (20.2%), a group who should be more likely to notice them first. This finding may be partly attributed to the possibility that students' problems with police may be more salient than those with teachers, and thus may be more subject to recall. Even so, it seems teachers

Table 1 Spearman Correlations Among Students' Problems with Adults

and Friends'

1 2 3 4 5 1 Teachers or principal 1 0 0 0 208 252 271 256 2 Friends your age 1000 266 313 292 3 The police 1 0 0 0 367 314 4 Your parents or family 1000 276 5 Adults in your neighborhood 1 000

* N=6526, p-z 0001

32 Journal of School Health January 1989. Vol. 59, No. 1

need training to identify and help problem drinkers among students.

The relatively low correlation between problems students experience with their parents or family, and teachers or principal, may be cause for additional con- cern. This finding suggests these individuals may not be coordinating their efforts to assist problem drinkers. Without a concerted strategy, efforts to provide success- ful early intervention services to adolescent problem drinkers are likely to fail.

References I . US Dept of Health and Human Services: Sixth Special Reporf

to fhe US Congrew on Alcohol and Health. Washington, DC, US Government Printing Office, USDHHS publication no (ADM) 87-1519, 1987.

2. Johnson K Peer group influences upon adolescent drinking

practices. Mid-Am R Soc 1984;9:79-99.

treatment. Ann Rev Med 1984;35:293-309. 3. Nace E: Epidemiology of alcoholism and prospects for

4. Ritson B: Alcohol and young people. J Ado1 1981;4:93-100. 5 . Rooney J: Perceived differences of standards for alcohol use

among American youth. J Stud Alc 1982;43:1069-1083. 6. Bauman K: The consequences expected from alcohol and

drinking behavior: A factor analysis of data from a panel study of adolescents. Int J Addict 1985-86;20:1635-1647.

7. Akers R, Krohn M, Lanza-Kaduce L, Radosevich M: Social learning and deviant behavior: A specific test of a general theory. Am Soc Rev 1979;44:636-655.

8 . Jessor R, Jessor S: Problem Behavior and Psychosocial Devel- opment: A Iongitudinal study ofyouth. New York, Academic Press, 1977.

9. Kandel D: Drug and drinking behavior among youth. Ann R SOC 1980;6:235-285.

10. Temple M, Fillmore K: The variability of drinking patterns and problems among young men, age 16-31: A longitudinal study. I n f J Addicf 1985-86;20: 1595-1620.

Adolescent Medicine - The annual meeting of the Society for Adolescent Medicine will be held in San Francisco, March 19-22, 1989. Speakers from the fields of medicine and the behavioral and social sciences are scheduled. All-day workshops as well as 3-hour workshops on relevant topics, experimental research papers, and posters also are planned. Contact: Edie Moore, The Society for Adolescent Medicine, Suite 101, 10727 White Oak Ave., Granada Hills, CA 91344; 81 8/368-5996.

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