Child Psychology Commons^™

Alcohol Use Subgroups Among Rural Middle School Students: The Impact Of Community Violence Exposure, Courtney B. Dunn

Theses and Dissertations

A substantial portion of early adolescents initiate alcohol use. This represents a significant public health concern due to its association with a variety of adverse consequences. Although person-centered analytic approaches such as latent class analysis have been used to describe heterogeneity in adolescents’ alcohol use, most prior studies have focused on high school or older samples. This may obscure patterns of alcohol use that emerge during early adolescence. The current study identified and described subgroups of adolescents based on their alcohol use in a racially diverse sample of rural middle school students. Because research and theory indicate that exposure to …