Psychosocial predictors of adolescent substance use in the Virgin Islands: Results of the 2007 Virgin Islands Youth Risk Behavior Survey

The Virgin Islands Youth Risk Behavior Survey (VI YRBS), jointly administered by the VI Departments of Health and Education in May, 2007 to all available students in all four VI public high schools, was funded by the US Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) State Incentive Grant (SIG) program to guide prevention planning efforts in the Territory. We derived 112 items from the CDC YRBS and the Communities That Care (CTC) Youth Survey covering socio-demographics, alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use, and perceptions and attitudes toward use. We used weighted (grade, race, and gender) logistic regression to identify predictors of current and risky use. Covariates included 4 socio-demographic factors (age, gender, Hispanic race, and maternal education) and 16 socio-psychological factors in 5 domains (community, family, school, peer, and individual). There were 3,144 valid surveys representing 63% of the enrolled student population. Median age was 16; 2,736 (87.0%) were African-American; 1,478 (47.0%) were males; and 2,168 (82.3%) reported maternal education at least through high school. Alcohol was used most often (45.9%), then marijuana (20.2%), and cigarettes (2.8%). Controlling for socio-demographic factors, perceived availability of substances, parental and student attitudes favorable to use, skipping school in the past month, peer substance use, and student antisocial behaviors were most strongly related to current and binge alcohol use and current marijuana use. Adolescent substance use in the Virgin Islands conforms to an ecosocial model of influences at multiple, vertically integrated domains/levels. That is, concerted preventive interventions across levels would most likely affect use rates.