Citation

Shillington AM, Clapp JD, Reed MB. J. Child Adolesc. Subst. Abuse 2011; 20(5): 407-420.

Affiliation

San Diego State University, School of Social Work, College of Health and Human Services Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Studies and Services.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

22308063

PMCID

PMC3269314

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: This study examined teen marijuana report stability over eight years. The stability of self-reports refers to the consistency of self-reported use across several years. METHOD: This study used fives waves of data across eight years from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Analyses were conducted to examine the internal or within wave consistency as well as external or across waves consistency for self-reported marijuana use. Further tests were conducted to identify if there were any differences for age, ethnicity and sex for report consistency. RESULTS: Report stability was higher for lifetime use reports than the age of onset reports. Wave-by-wave differences revealed stability remained at acceptable levels in nearly all comparisons at agreement being about 75%. Overall, report agreement was higher for females, older adolescents, and Non-Hispanic/Non-Black youth in bivariate analyses. However, only older chronological age remained consistently significantly associated with better report stability in multiple logistic regression models. Implications regarding misclassification of users for prevention programs and measurement issues are discussed.

Language: en