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Comparative Study
. 2010 Jan;71(1):41-5.
doi: 10.15288/jsad.2010.71.41.

Alcohol use and heavy episodic drinking prevalence and predictors among national samples of American eighth- and tenth-grade students

Megan E Patrick  1 , John E Schulenberg
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Alcohol use and heavy episodic drinking prevalence and predictors among national samples of American eighth- and tenth-grade students

Megan E Patrick et al. J Stud Alcohol Drugs. 2010 Jan.

Abstract

Objective: Given the public health impact of adolescent alcohol use and heavy episodic drinking, we sought to identify the prevalence of types of alcohol use among national samples of 8th- and 10th grade American students. In addition, a range of known risk factors was used to predict the most problematic type: heavy episodic use.

Method: Monitoring the Future data on lifetime, past-year, and past-30-day alcohol use and on past-2-week heavy episodic drinking were available for 505,668 students from 1991 to 2007 (weighted N = 505,853; 51.5% girls; 65.3% White, 12.3% Black, 11.1% Hispanic). Logistic regression was then used in a representative subsample of 110,130 students to predict heavy episodic drinking in the previous 2 weeks.

Results: In the most recent cohorts, about 1 in 10 8th graders and 1 in 5 10th graders had engaged in heavy episodic drinking in the past 2 weeks. Explanatory variables in logistic regression were largely invariant across cohort, grade level, gender, and race/ethnicity, accounting for 48% of the variance in heavy episodic drinking.

Conclusions: Heavy episodic drinking continues to be a prevalent behavior among the nation's youth, with consistent risk factors over time, highlighting the continued necessity of effective screening and prevention efforts.

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