Original articleA cross-national comparison of risk and protective factors for adolescent substance use: the United States and Australia☆
Section snippets
Risk and protective factors for adolescent substance use
Although the United States and Australia are similar in many ways, the policy and cultural differences outlined above suggest this question: Are the same risk and protective factors predictive of substance use in both countries? If not, there may be differential implications for activities in each country that aim at preventing youth substance use. A brief review of risk and protective factors relevant to this study is provided below (see Hawkins et al 21, 22 for reviews).
Risk factors
The current study
Many prior research studies have investigated risk and protective factors for adolescent substance use. However, few studies have investigated cross-national similarities and differences in such relations, and existing cross-national investigations have examined only a limited number of risk and protective factors [15]. The present study used comparable survey data from three independent samples. Three primary research questions were addressed: Are there different rates of substance use in
Participants
Data were obtained from independent samples of students in three states: Maine and Oregon in the United States and Victoria, a southern state in Australia. The U.S. samples were recruited and surveyed in 1998 and the Victorian sample in 1999. In Maine, all public schools serving students in grades 6 through 12 were solicited for participation. Two-hundred-twelve (46.1%) schools agreed to participate. Classes were randomly selected for surveying from participating schools serving more than 250
Analysis
As stated above, there were very few differences between the Maine and Oregon samples in both substance use rates and risk and protective factor levels. Therefore, the samples were combined to provide the most parsimonious investigation of the primary research questions. The few cross-national comparisons that differed when Maine and Oregon adolescents were compared separately to Victoria adolescents are described with the results for the combined sample.
Three sets of analyses were conducted to
Rates of substance use
As shown in Figure 1, more Victorian youths reported using cigarettes and alcohol regularly than adolescents in Maine and Oregon, whereas more Maine and Oregon youths reported current use of marijuana (see Figure 1). Across gender, the rate of regular cigarette use among early adolescents in Victoria was 6.2% (95% CI = 5.5%, 6.8%) versus 4.8% (95% CI = 4.5%, 5.1%) in Maine and Oregon. The rate was also higher among later (older) adolescents in Victoria: 20.3% (95% CI = 18.9%, 21.7%) versus
Discussion
This study used independent samples from Maine and Oregon in the United States and the state of Victoria in Australia to investigate cross-national similarities and differences in (a) rates of adolescent substance use, (b) levels of risk and protective factors for substance use, and (c) relations between risk and protective factors and substance use. We found higher rates of regular alcohol and cigarette use among youths in Victoria compared to Maine and Oregon youths, and higher rates of
Acknowledgements
Analyses for this project were supported by grant No. DA12140 from the National Institute on Drug abuse (NIDA). Data collection in Maine and Oregon was made possible through NIDA grant No. DA10768 and additional support from the Maine Office of Substance Abuse and the Oregon Office of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Programs. The Victorian data collection was funded by the Department of Human Services, Victoria. We wish to acknowledge Lyndal Thomas who managed the Victorian data collection and John
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The writing of the manuscript was supported in part by grants from the National Institute of Drug Abuse (#DA 12140 and #DA 10768). Earlier versions of this manuscript were presented in poster sessions at the annual meeting of the Society of Prevention Research, May 30–June 1, 2002, Seattle, Washington and the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association, November 9–13, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.