 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Erin Pirkle, MPH, CMHS, San Francisco Department of Public Health, 1380 Howard St., 5th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94103, 415-255-3535, Erin.Pirkle@sfdph.org and Linda Richter, PhD, The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, Columbia University, 633 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017.
To identify personality and attitudinal characteristics most strongly associated with smoking and binge drinking among teenage girls and young women, analyses were conducted on the survey responses of participants in CASA's national Formative Years survey. Multiple regression analyses revealed that the personality trait of high self-monitoring was associated with a greater likelihood of binge drinking (OR=1.31, 95% C.I. 1.03, 1.65). Girls who said that people their age drink because of boredom were significantly likelier to be binge drinkers (OR=1.65, 95% C.I. 1.01, 1.27), as were those who said that people their age drink because it gives them an excuse to do something they would not usually do (OR=2.08, 95% C.I. 1.22, 3.55). With regard to smoking, depressive symptomatology (OR=1.59, 95% C.I. 1.04, 2.45), popularity (OR=3.75, 95% C.I. 1.99, 7.09), and the belief that people smoke because it's cool (OR=8.0, 95% C.I. 2.75, 25.86) were each associated with an increased likelihood of smoking. Conversely, religiosity was associated with a reduced likelihood of both binge drinking (OR=.57, 95% C.I. .45, .74) and smoking (OR=.50, 95% C.I. .34, .74). Understanding the profile of a young female binge drinker or smoker can help in the early identification of and intervention with at-risk young females. For example, girls demonstrating depression or high self-monitoring should be targeted, as should those with certain favorable smoking- or drinking-related beliefs.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Alcohol Use, Smoking
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.