Adolescent Alcohol Use in Spain: Connections with Friends, School, and Other Delinquent Behaviors

This study examined the connections between adolescent alcohol use in Alicante, Spain and variables reflecting adolescents’ academic problems, potentially delinquent behaviors, friends’ alcohol consumption, and friendship quality. Information about alcohol use and a number of school and social variables was collected from adolescent students (N = 567) who completed the National Students School-Based Drug Survey in a classroom setting. 

Results suggested that gender was not significantly associated with alcohol use, although alcohol use increased with age and was more likely for adolescents enrolled in public schools compared to private. After controlling for age and type of school (public vs. private), academic problems explained 5.1% of the variance in adolescents’ alcohol use, potentially delinquent behaviors explained 29.0%, friends’ alcohol use 16.8%, and friendship quality 1.6%. 

When all unique predictors from these four models were included in a comprehensive model, they explained 32.3% of the variance in adolescents’ alcohol use. In this final model, getting expelled, participating in a fight, going out at night, the hour at which one returns, and the number of friends who have consumed alcohol were uniquely and positively associated with adolescents’ alcohol use. 

These results provide important information about multi-system influences on adolescent alcohol use in Alicante, Spain and suggest potential areas of focus for intervention research.

Correlations between alcohol consumption and all predictors.

Predictors	Correlation (r) with alcohol consumption
Demographics
Age	0.25∗∗
Public vs. private school	0.10∗
Gender	0.03
Academic Problems
Normally I do not complete any of my homework.	0.04
Have you repeated a course?	0.30∗∗
Have you missed class in the past 30 days?	0.13∗∗
Have you been expelled in the past 12 months?	0.19∗∗
Potentially delinquent behaviors
Have you run away from home in the past 12 months?	0.14∗∗
Have you participated in a fight in the past 12 months?	0.26∗∗
Do you go out at night?	0.52∗∗
When do you return when you go out at night?	0.41∗∗
Friends’ alcohol consumption
How many of your friends consumed alcohol in the past 30 days?	0.42∗∗
How many of your friends got drunk in the past 30 days?	0.37∗∗
Friendship quality
I receive care from my best friend.	0.03
How often do you hang out with your friends?	0.11∗
Friends subscale of the KIDSCREEN-52	0.09∗

∗∗ Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (two-tailed). ∗ Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (two-tailed).

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/P5Isu7

By:  Lisa D. Goldberg-Looney,1 Miriam Sánchez-SanSegundo,2 Rosario Ferrer-Cascales,2 Natalia Albaladejo-Blazquez,2 andPaul B. Perrin1,*

¹Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA

²Department of Health Psychology, University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain

Edited by: Gianluca Castelnuovo, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy

Reviewed by: Michelle Dow Keawphalouk, Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA; Roberto Cattivelli, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico, Italy

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