A Comparison of Cut Points for Measuring Risk Factors for Adolescent Substance Use and Antisocial Behaviors in the U.S. and Colombia

Bibliographic Data

ID15465670
AuthorsEric C Brown (0000-0002-2376-0497, University of Miami, corresponding author), Pablo Montero‐Zamora (0000-0002-8437-2113, University of Miami), Francisco Cardozo (0000-0002-1925-4954, University of Miami), Francisco Cardozo-Macías (University of Miami), Maria Fernanda Reyes (0000-0002-2645-5092, Universidad El Bosque), John S Briney (0009-0002-8681-0890, University of Washington), Juliana Mejía‐trujillo (0000-0002-9327-4689), Juliana Mejía-Trujillo (Corporación Nuevos Rumbos, Bogotá 110111, Colombia), Augusto Pérez Gómez (0000-0001-5853-3860, Corporación Nuevos Rumbos, Bogotá 110111, Colombia)
Year2021
Volume18
Issue2
Pages470-470
Publication date2021-01-08
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1661-7827 • E-ISSN: 1660-4601
PublisherMultidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (PUBLISHER • CH)
DOI10.3390/ijerph18020470
PMID33435524
OpenAlexW3120443568
LanguageEN
References cited20

As the identification and targeting of salient risk factors for adolescent substance use become more widely used globally, an essential question arises as to whether U.S.-based cut points in the distributions of these risk factors that identify "high" risk can be used validly in other countries as well. This study examined proportions of youth at "high" risk using different empirically derived cut points in the distributions of 18 measured risk factors. Data were obtained from large-scale samples of adolescents in Colombia and the United States. Results indicated that significant ( p < 0.05) differences in the proportions of "high" risk youth were found in 38.9% of risk factors for 6th graders, 61.1% for 8th graders, and 66.6% for 10th graders. Colombian-based cut points for determining the proportion of Colombian youth at "high" risk were preferable to U.S.-based cut points in almost all comparisons that exhibited a significant difference. Our findings suggest that observed differences were related to the type of risk factor (e.g., drug specific vs. non-drug specific). Findings from this study demonstrate the need for collecting large-scale national data on risk factors for adolescent substance use and developing country-specific cut points based on the distributions of these measures to avoid misidentification of youth at "high" risk

Antisocial personality disorder · Environmental health · Injury prevention · Poison control · Substance use · Suicide prevention · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development · Clinical Psychology · Community Health and Development · Human Factors and Ergonomics · Medicine · Psychology · Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes

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