Adolescent Drinking Behavior

Data from the National Institute of Mental Health Epidemiologic Catchment Area Program has shown that one of the country's four major psychological disorders is alcoholism, and that further, this disorder is most likely to begin in the adoledistress, especially in the home and school environment; and (2) social learning in which teen drinking is viewed as the result of parental and peer modeling.

In an extensive review of theories of the etiology of alcohol abuse, Davison and Neale (1982) concluded that the Tension Reduction Theory of Alcoholism (People drink to reduce tension and discomfort due to stress and/or psychological distress) is a view that is maximally relevant to why people begin drinking. Since most alcohol abusers begin their drinking in adolescence (Helzer, 1988), the Tension Reduction Theory can be seen as highly relevant to adolescent drinking.

This study examined this Tension Reduction Theory as it applies to adolescent drinking by examining for relationships between frequencies of teens' drinking behavior and between measures of psychological distress and stress. Further, in order to assess the degree of relevance of the theory for adolescent drinking, frequency of alcohol drinking was their drinking in adolescence (Helzer, 1988), the Tension Reduction Theory can be seen as highly relevant to adolescent drinking.

This study examined this Tension Reduction Theory as it applies to adolescent dr

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iosity and delusions; and (9) Psychoticism with characteristics indicative of a life style marked by isolation and social withdrawal. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the SCL-90-R was calculated using a samples of both symptomatic and non-symptomatic volunteers. The observed reliability coefficients were quite satisfactory with a low of .77 for Psychoticism to a high of .90 for the Depression subscale. The validity studies of the SCL-90-R demonstrate good levels of concurrent, convergent, discriminant, and construct validity considered to be at a level comparable to other self-report inventories ( Derogatis, Rickels & Rock, 1976; Derogatis & Cleary, 1977). In the manual, the major portion of the validity section concerns studies in which the SCL-90-R was used as a change measure in investigations of stress. Therefore, the measure is highly relevant to psychological distress and stress in the life. State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). The A-State anxiety scale of the STAI is this study's measure of general stress in subjects' lives. That stress can be translated to state anxiety has been discussed by Sarason and Sarason (1980) who define general stress as a response to situations that involves demands, c

Category: Psychology - A