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The Origins of the Correlations between Tobacco, Alcohol, and Cannabis Use During Adolescence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 1998

Michael T. Lynskey ,
David M. Fergusson  and
L. John Horwood
Michael T. Lynskey
Affiliation:
Christchurch School of Medicine, Christchurch, New Zealand
David M. Fergusson
Affiliation:
Christchurch School of Medicine, Christchurch, New Zealand
L. John Horwood
Affiliation:
Christchurch School of Medicine, Christchurch, New Zealand
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Abstract

Methods of structural equation modelling were used to analyse the correlations between reports of tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis use in a birth cohort of New Zealand children studied to the age of 16. This analysis produced three major conclusions: (a) the correlations between tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis use could be explained by a factor representing the individual's vulnerability to substance use; (b) predictors of vulnerability to substance use were the extent to which the individual affiliated with delinquent or substance using peers, novelty seeking, and parental illicit drug use; (c) in the region of 54% of the correlations between substance use behaviours could be predicted from observed risk factors and 46% was attributable to non-observed sources of vulnerability.

Keywords

Substance useadolescencestructural equation modellinglongitudinal study
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines , Volume 39 , Issue 7 , October 1998 , pp. 995 - 1005
Copyright
© 1998 Association for Child Psychology and Psychiatry

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