This article specifically addressed the need for a multidimensional approach to measuring adolescents' drug involvement. The Drug Involvement Scale for Adolescents (DISA) was theoretically specified and its measurement properties were tested using Confirmatory Factor Analyses and traditional procedures with 705 high-risk and typical high school students. Five first-order dimensions, Drug Access, Alcohol Use, Other Drug Use, Drug Use Control Problems and Adverse Drug Use Consequences, and a hierarchical model of Drug Involvement demonstrated a good fit between model and data. Further, the DISA demonstrated good internal consistency (α = .91); correlated as expected with known correlates of adolescent drug use; discriminated drug involvement between high-risk and typical high school students; and predicted later drug involvement and known drug-related consequences among adolescents. The results suggest the DISA should be useful for capturing a multidimensional view of adolescent drug involvement in both etiologic and prevention studies. A major advantage of the DISA is its brevity: twentytwo indicators constructed from twenty-nine items.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
KandelD. B.KesslerR. C.MarguliesR. Z., Antecedents of Adolescent Initiation into Stages of Drug Use: A Developmental Analysis, in Longitudinal Research and Drug Use: Empirical Findings and Methodological Issues, KandelD. B. (ed.), Hemisphere, Washington, D.C., pp. 73–98, 1978.
2.
NewcombM. D., Substance Use and Abuse among Children and Teenagers, American Psychologist, 44, pp. 242–248, 1989.
3.
EggertL. L.HertingJ. R., Drug Involvement among Potential Dropouts and “Typical” Youth, Journal of Drug Education, 23, pp. 31–55, 1993.
4.
JohnstonL. D.O'MalleyP. M.BachmanJ. G., National Trends in Drug Use and Related Factors among American High School Students and Young Adults, 1975–1986, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Rockville, Maryland, 1987.
5.
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Household Survey on Drug Abuse: Population Estimates 1985, Author, Rockville, Maryland, 1987.
6.
NeedleR.SuS.LaveeY., A Comparison of the Empirical Utility of Three Composite Measures of Adolescent Overall Drug Involvement, Addictive Behaviors, 14, pp. 429–441, 1989.
7.
FriedmanA. S.UtadaA., A Method for Diagnosing and Planning the Treatment of Adolescent Drug Abusers (The Adolescent Drug Abuse Diagnosis [ADA] Instrument), Journal of Drug Education, 19, pp. 285–312, 1989.
8.
KaminerY.BuksteinO.TarterR. E., The Teen-Addiction Severity Index: Rationale and Reliability, The International Journal of the Addictions, 26, pp. 219–226, 1991.
9.
HenlyG. A.WintersK. C., Development of Problem Severity Scales for the Assessment of Adolescent Alcohol and Drug Abuse, The International Journal of the Addictions, 23, pp. 65–85, 1988.
10.
WintersK. C.HenlyG. A., Assessing Adolescents Who Abuse Chemicals: The Chemical Dependency Adolescent Assessment Project, in Adolescent Drug Abuse: Analysis of Treatment Research, NIDA Research Monograph #77, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Rockville, Maryland, 1988.
11.
DonovanJ. E.JessorR., Problem Drinking and the Dimension of Involvement with Drugs: A Guttman Scalogram Analysis of Adolescent Drug Use, American Journal of Public Health, 73, pp. 543–552, 1983.
12.
KandelD. B., Drug and Drinking Behavior among Youth, Annual Review of Sociology, 6, pp. 235–285, 1980.
13.
KandelD. B., On Processes of Peer Influences in Adolescent Drug Use: A Developmental Perspective, Advances in Alcohol and Substance Abuse, 4, pp. 139–163, 1985.
14.
KandelD. B.YamaguchiK., From Beer to Crack: Developmental Patterns of Drug Involvement, American Journal of Public Health, 83, pp. 851–855, 1993.
15.
WhiteH. R.LaBouvieE. W., Towards the Assessment of Adolescent Problem Drinking, Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 50, pp. 30–37, 1989.
16.
MayerJ.FilsteadW. J., The Adolescent Alcohol Involvement Scale: An Instrument for Measuring Adolescent Use and Misuse of Alcohol, Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 40, pp. 291–300, 1979.
17.
MobergD. P.HahnL., The Adolescent Drug Involvement Scale, Journal of Adolescent Chemical Dependency, 2, pp. 75–88, 1991.
18.
JohnstonL. D.BachmanJ. G.O'MalleyP. M., National High School Senior Drug Abuse Survey: Monitoring the Future, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1989, 1990.
19.
PetchersM. K.SingerM. I.AngelottaJ. W.ChowJ., Revalidation and Expansion of an Adolescent Substance Abuse Screening Measure, Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 9, pp. 25–29, 1988.
20.
WisniewskiN. M.GlenwickD. S.GrahamJ. R., MacAndrew Scale and Sociodemographic Correlates of Adolescent Alcohol and Drug Use, Addictive Behaviors, 10, pp. 55–67, 1985.
21.
MooreR. H., Construct Validity of the MacAndrew Scale: Secondary Psychopathic and Dysthymic-Neurotic Character Orientations among Adolescent Male Misdemeanor Offenders, Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 46, pp. 128–131, 1985.
22.
KandelD. B.DaviesM.KarusD.YamaguchiK., The Consequences in Young Adulthood of Adolescent Drug Involvement, Archives of General Psychiatry, 43, pp. 746–754, 1986.
23.
EggertL. L.NicholasL. J., Speaking Like a Skipper: “Skippin‘ an’ Gettin‘ High,”Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 11, pp. 75–100, 1992.
24.
EggertL. L., Adolescent Metaphors for “Usin‘ an’ Dealin‘ Drugs,” (in review).
25.
JessorR.JessorS., A Social-Psychological Framework for Studying Drug Use, in Theories on Drug Abuse, LettieriD. J.SayersM.PearsonH. W. (eds.), ADM84-967, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Rockville, Maryland, pp. 102–109, 1980.
26.
KandelD. B., Epidemiological and Psychosocial Perspectives on Adolescent Drug Use, Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 21, pp. 328–347, 1982.
27.
NewcombM. D.BentlerP. M., Consequences of Adolescent Drug Use: Impact on the Lives of Young Adults, Sage, Newbury Park, California, 1988.
28.
HaysR. D.WidamanK. F.DiMatteoM. R.StacyA. W., Structural-Equation Models of Current Drug Use: Are Appropriate Models So Simple (x)?, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology52, pp. 134–144, 1987.
29.
ProchaskaJ.DiClementeC., Stages and Processes of Self-Change in Smoking: Towards an Integrative Model of Change, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 51, pp. 390–395, 1983.
30.
BachmanJ. G.SchulenbergJ. E.O'MalleyP. M.JohnstonL. D., Short-Term and Longer-Term Effects of Educational Commitment and Success on the Use of Cigarettes, Alcohol and Illicit Drugs, paper presented at the 3rd biennial meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence, Atlanta, Georgia, 1990.
31.
HubaG. J.NewcombM. D.BentlerP. M., Adverse Drug Experiences and Drug Use Behaviors: A One-Year Longitudinal Study of Adolescents, Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 11, pp. 203–219, 1986.
32.
HubaG. J.WingardJ. A.BentlerP. M., Framework for an Interactive Theory of Drug Use, in Theories on Drug Abuse in LettieriD. J.SayersM.PearsonH. W. (eds.), ADM84-967, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Rockville, Maryland, pp. 95–101, 1980.
33.
EggertL. L.SeylC.NicholasL. J., Effects of a School-Based Prevention Program for Potential High School Dropouts and Drug Abusers, The International Journal of the Addictions, 25, pp. 773–801, 1990.
34.
ThompsonE. A.NicholasL. J.EggertL. L., Drug Abuse Prevention among Adolescents: Theory and Measurement, Communicating Nursing Research, 22, p. 200, 1989.
35.
ThompsonE. A., Instrumentation for LISREL Analysis and Data Collection with Adolescents, Communicating Nursing Research, 24, p. 180, 1991.
36.
EggertL. L.ThompsonE. A.HertingJ. R., Measuring Adolescent Drug Involvement, paper presented at the biennial conference of the Society for Research on Adolescence, Washington, D.C., 1992.
37.
HertingJ. R.ThompsonE. A.EggertL. L., Measuring Drug Involvement: High-Risk versus Low-Risk Youth, Communicating Nursing Research, 24, p. 183, 1991.
38.
HertingJ. R.EggertL. L., Modeling Adolescent Drug Involvement: Access, Frequency, Control and Consequences, paper presented at the Annual Meetings of the American Sociological Association, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1992.
39.
HertingJ. R.EggertL. L.ThompsonE. A., A Multidimensional Model of Adolescent Drug Involvement, Journal of Research on Adolescence (in press).
40.
EggertL. L.HertingJ. R.NicholasL. J., Reconnecting At-Risk Youth: Drug Users and Dropouts, a grant proposal funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01-DA04530), NIDA, Rockville, Maryland, 1988.
41.
EggertL. L.HertingJ. R.ThompsonE. A.NicholasL. J., Preventing Suicide Lethality among Vulnerable Youth, a grant proposal funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (R18-MH48139), 1990.
42.
HertingJ. R., Predicting At-risk Youth: Evaluation of a Sample Selection Model, Communicating Nursing Research, 23, p. 178, 1990.
43.
NicholasL. J., Recruitment of High-Risk Youth versus Typical Youth: Procedures and Challenges, Communicating Nursing Research, 23, p. 179, 1990.
44.
EggertL. L.HertingJ. R., Preventing Teenage Drug Abuse: Exploratory Effects of Network Social Support, Youth & Society, 22, pp. 482–534, 1991.
45.
BachmanJ. G.JohnstonJ. E.O'MalleyP. M., Monitoring the Future, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1980.
46.
BentlerP. M., Multivariate Analysis with Latent Variables: Causal Modeling, Annual Review of Psychology, 31, pp. 419–456, 1980.
47.
BollenK., Structural Equations with Latent Variables, Wiley, New York, 1989.
48.
JoreskogK. G., A General Method for Analysis of Covariance Structures, Biometrika, 57, pp. 239–251, 1970.
49.
BentlerP. M., EQS Structural Equations Program Manual, BMDP Statistical Software Inc., Los Angeles, California, 1989.
50.
LittleR. J. A.RubinD. B., The Analysis of Social Science Data with Missing Values, in Modern Methods of Data Analysis, FoxJ.LongJ. S. (eds.), Sage, Newbury Park, California, pp. 374–409, 1990.
51.
BentlerP. M.NewcombM. D., Linear Structural Equation Modeling with Non-normal Continuous Variables: Relations among Social Support, Drug Use and Health in Young Adults, in Statistical Models for Longitudinal Studies of Health, DwyerJ. H.FeinleibM.LippertP.HoffmeisterH. (eds.), Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 132–160, 1992.
52.
JohnsonD. R.CreechJ. C., Ordinal Measures in Multiple Indicator Models: A Simulation Study of Categorization Error, American Sociological Review, 48, pp. 398–407, 1983.
53.
BentlerP. M.BonettD. G., Significance Tests and Goodness of Fit in the Analysis of Covariance Structures, Psychological Bulletin, 88, pp. 588–606, 1980.
54.
GerbingD. W.AndersonJ. C., Monte Carlo Evaluations of Goodness of Fit Indices for Structural Equation Models, in Testing Structural Equation Models, BollenK. A.LongJ. S. (eds.), Sage, Newbury Park, California, pp. 40–65, 1993.
55.
LevinJ. S., The Factor Structure of the Pregnancy Anxiety Scale, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 32, pp. 368–381, 1991.
56.
MarshH. W.ShavelsonR., Self-Concept: Its Multifaceted, Hierarchical Structure, Educational Psychologist, 20, pp. 107–123, 1985.
57.
HarlowL. L.NewcombM. D., Towards a General Hierarchical Model of Meaning and Satisfaction in Life, Multivariate Behavioral Research, 25, pp. 387–405, 1990.
58.
LiangJ.LawrenceR. H.BennettJ. M.WhitelawN. A., Appropriateness of Composites in Structural Equation Models, Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 45, pp. 52–59, 1990.
59.
HertingJ. R.CostnerH. L., Respecification in Multiple Indicator Models, in Causal Models in the Social Sciences (2nd Edition), BlalockH. M.Jr. (ed.), Aldine, Chicago, pp. 321–393, 1985.
60.
NewcombM. D.MaddahianE.BentlerP. M., Risk Factors for Drug Use among Adolescents: Concurrent and Longitudinal Analyses, American Journal of Public Health, 76, pp. 525–531, 1986.
61.
ElliottD. S.HuizingaD.AgetonS. S., Explaining Delinquency and Drug Use, Sage, Beverly Hills, California, 1985.
62.
MatsuedaR. L., Testing Control Theory and Differential Association: A Causal Modeling Approach, American Sociological Review, 47, pp. 489–504, 1982.
