ASSESSMENT OF RURAL ADOLESCENT ALCOHOL USE

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Almost one-third of U.S. adolescents live in rural areas. For these teenagers, alcohol use and its related consequences are a major public health problem. Unfortunately, little is known about the prevalence of rural teenage drinking or problem drinking and associated factors, especially for the younger teenagers. This information is critical in the development of effective prevention programs because prevention and service programs developed for various disorders in metropolitan populations have typically been unsuccessful in rural areas. The goal of this study is to better understand rural adolescent alcohol use by comparing the prevalence of drinking and problem drinking between two rural regions and one metropolitan region, and by identifying modifiable factors associated with adolescent alcohol use that may account for regional differences. The study will involve administration of standardized instruments assessing drinking behavior, sociodemographics and potential risk or protective factors to 1,000 young adolescents (aged 12-14) from each of three well-characterized regions in a rural state. This will be the first research assessing drinking behavior in rural adolescents to (a) use sampling from multiple sites, (b) clearly define unique characteristics of different rural regions, and (c) assess intra-rural variation as well as urban-rural variation. Furthermore, the focus will be on young adolescents who may be more susceptible to preventive interventions. It is anticipated that results from this FIRST Award will be employed to (a) pursue funding for a longitudinal cohort study from this particular sample and (b) assist in the modification of existing prevention programs or development of new prevention programs targeted to reduce alcohol use and problem drinking in young rural adolescents. Arkansas is an ideal site to conduct this research because of the history of collaboration between public agencies, educators and investigators, the extensive pilot work conducted by the investigators with excellent cooperation by the schools, the well-described socioeconomic and cultural variation between regions, and the potential for significant policy impact in the state.