Severity of alcohol use and problem behaviors among school-based youths in Puerto Rico Magnitud del consumo de alcohol y comportamientos problemáticos en jóvenes escolarizados en Puerto Rico

• Main Authors: William W. Latimer, Vanessa Cecilia Rojas, Brent Edward Mancha
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Spanish; Portuguese
• Published: Pan American Health Organization 2008
• Subjects: Conducta del adolescente; trastornos relacionados con el alcohol; alcoholismo; clasificación; asunción de riesgos; Puerto Rico; Adolescent behavior; alcohol-related disorders; alcoholism; classification; risk behaviors; Medicine; R; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270; Arctic; San Juan
• Online Access: https://doaj.org/article/977a5b9f3b9d42f7b5931b94e92d43b3

OBJECTIVE: The present study sought to: (a) categorize youths into groups based on their level of alcohol use and number of symptoms of alcohol abuse and dependence defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), and (b) examine whether these categories were associated with other problem behaviors in which youths engage (marijuana use, sexual intercourse, and having been arrested or having trouble with the law). METHODS: The study is based on a cross-sectional survey administered to 972 school-based youths from one middle school and one high school in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Youths were categorized based on their alcohol use and alcohol problems. These categories were then examined for associations with lifetime marijuana use, lifetime sexual intercourse, and having been arrested or having had trouble with the law in the past year. The original eight categories of alcohol use were collapsed into six categories based on the results. RESULTS: For virtually every group characterized by higher severity of alcohol use and alcohol problems, researchers found an increasing prevalence of marijuana use in their lifetimes, increasing odds of sexual intercourse in their lifetimes, and having had trouble with the law in the past year. CONCLUSIONS: Knowing about variations in alcohol use and alcohol problems may be instrumental in measuring the degree to which youths may also be engaging in a range of other elevated risk behaviors and a progression to more serious forms of alcohol and drug use. OBJETIVOS: Se buscó: a) categorizar a los jóvenes según su nivel de consumo de alcohol y el número de síntomas de abuso y dependencia del alcohol definidos en el Manual diagnóstico y estadístico de los trastornos mentales (DSM-IV); y b) analizar si esas categorías están asociadas con otros comportamientos problemáticos de los jóvenes (consumo de marihuana, relaciones sexuales y arrestos o problemas con la ley). MÉTODOS: Estudio transversal basado en una encuesta aplicada a 972 jóvenes que asistían a una ...