This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Sussman, S. Articles by Stacy, A. W. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Sussman, S. Articles by Stacy, A. W. Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Five Methods of Assessing School-Level Daily Use of Cigarettes and Alcohol By Adolescents At Continuation High Schools

University of Southern California

Alan W. Stacy

University of Southern California

We explored five methods of estimating school-level daily use of cigarettes and alcohol by adolescents at 20 continuation high schools in southern California. We used Campbell and Fiske's criteria to estimate convergent and discriminant validity of a correlation matrix consist ing of two "traits" (daily use of cigarettes or alcohol) and five "methods" (aggregated student self-report, school personnel prevalence estimate, student prevalence estimate, naturalistic observation of use, and school refuse evidence). Results showed that the different methods varied dramatically in convergent and discriminant validity. These findings, as well as assessment cost considerations, lead us to suggest that refuse analysis is the most economic proxy measure for estimating school-level daily student cigarette smoking and other drug use. Replication studies are needed.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?