251473 Prospective associations between youth assets, community factors and youth binge drinking by race/ethnicity and income: Results from the Youth Asset Study

Wednesday, November 2, 2011: 9:15 AM

Roy Oman, PhD , College of Public Health, Oklahoma University Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK
Sara Vesely, PhD , Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK
Eleni Tolma, MPH, PhD , College of Public Health, Oklahoma University Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK
Cheryl Aspy, PhD , College of Medicine, Oklahoma University Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK
Lindsay Boeckman, MS , Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK
The binge drinking rate for teenage current alcohol users is 61%. Factors that may protect youth from binge drinking behavior warrant study. The Youth Asset Study is a 5-wave longitudinal study involving 1111 youth (Mean age= 14.36 +1.59; 53% female; 26% Black, 31% Hispanic, 43% White; 50% with income <$5,000; 69% in two-parent families) and their parents. This study's purpose is to explore relationships among youth assets, race/ethnicity, federal poverty level (FPL) and youth binge drinking. Seventeen assets were summed and divided at the median to form a high- vs. low-asset variable. Assets at Waves 1-4 and neighborhood factors at Wave 1 were used to predict binge drinking at Waves 2–5 while controlling for several demographic variables. Data were analyzed using marginal logistic regression (reported Odd Ratios (ORs) significant at p <0.05). Results indicated that assets were prospectively associated with the absence of binge drinking for black, white and Hispanic youth, and for youth in the lowest- (0%-100% FPL), lower- (101%-200% FPL), and highest-income (300+% FPL) groups (ORs range= 1.8 to 2.9). Neighborhood analyses results indicated that youth in the highest-income group and with few parental concerns regarding neighborhood services were more likely to binge drink (OR=0.72). In contrast, among youth in the lowest-income group, those with few parental concerns regarding neighborhood crime/safety or who lived in neighborhoods in good physical condition were more likely to not binge drink (ORs= 1.10 and 1.54, respectively). These data suggest that assets and some community factors are protective of youth binge drinking.

Learning Areas:
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Program planning
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
1. Describe how youth assets and the neighborhood environment may be prospectively associated with less youth binge drinking. 2. Understand prospective relationships between youth assets and binge drinking within the context of youth race/ethnicity and family income.

Keywords: Alcohol Use, Maternal and Child Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have conducted research and presented findings at numerous national conferences for the past 20 years.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.