Antisocial peer behavior and low parental knowledge of adolescents' activities are key interpersonal risk factors for adolescent substance use. However, how the magnitude of associations between these risk factors and substance use may vary across adolescence remains less well understood. The present study examined the age-varying associations of…

The current study provides new information on the etiology of adolescent problem behaviors in African American youth by testing the importance of known predictors, namely parenting measures (monitoring, support, and communication), peers, and neighborhood characteristics across rural and non-rural developmental contexts. More specifically, the…

The authors test biosocial models that posit interactions between biological variables (testosterone, estradiol, pubertal status, and pubertal timing) and social context variables (family, peer, school, and neighborhood) in predicting adolescent involvement with cigarettes and alcohol in a sample of 409 adolescents in Grades 6 and 8. Models…

This article offers a developmental perspective on college drinking by focusing on broad developmental themes during adolescence and the transition to young adulthood. Links between developmental transitions and alcohol use and other health risks are discussed in light of five conceptual models: Overload; Developmental Mismatch; Increased…

Examined the extent to which risk factors for concurrent binge drinking in adolescence can predict changes during transition to young adulthood. Found that being male, possessing low self-efficacy, and drinking primarily "to get drunk" were unconditional risk factors for increased binge drinking over time. Other adolescent risk factors…

The relationship between biological maturation, as evidenced by skeletal growth, during adolescence and the development of drinking habits and alcohol abuse was studied for a representative group of Swedish males (N=88). Early and late maturers had more advanced drinking habits at age 14 years than did normally maturing subjects. (TJH)