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Prevalence and Predictors of Substance UseA Comparison Between Adolescents With and Without Learning DisabilitiesJohn W. Maag, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His interests include the characteristics and treatment of depression in students with behavior disorders and learning disabilities, social skills assessment and training, and self-management training for children with attention deficits. Address: John W. Maag, Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders, 202 Barkley Memorial Center, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68583–0732.
Deborah M. Irvin, MA, is currently an instructor in the Department of Teacher Education at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She also is a doctoral student in special education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her research interests include substance use and abuse among adolescents and minority populations.
Robert Reid, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His interests include self-regulated strategy instruction and attention in students with learning disabilities and behavior disorders.
Stanley F. Vasa, EdD, is a professor in the Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His interests include programming and interventions for students with learning disabilities, training and utilization of paraeducators, and consultation theory and strategies. A considerable body of literature has accumulated that examines patterns of substance use and abuse among adolescents attending general education classes. However, much less information exists on the prevalence and predictors of substance use among adolescents with learning disabilities. One purpose of this study was to determine the comparative prevalence of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use among a sample of 123 students with learning disabilities (91 male and 32 female, mean age = 14.37 years) and 138 nondisabled students (77 male and 61 female, mean age = 13.71 years). A second purpose was to determine whether two psychosocial variables (self-esteem and type of behavior problem) or severity of drinking problem best predicted use of tobacco and marijuana. Students were administered the Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI)-School form (Coopersmith, 1987) and the Adolescent Drinking Index (ADD (Harrell & Wirtz, 1989); their teachers completed the Revised Behavior Problem Checklist (RBPC) (Quay & Peterson, 1987). Tobacco and marijuana use were proportionally higher for adolescents with learning disabilities; no differences emerged for alcohol use between groups. A discriminant function analysis revealed that scores on the SEI and subscale scores of the RBPC did not reliably predict tobacco or marijuana use for either group. ADI scores were reliable predictors of marijuana use for students with learning disabilities and tobacco use for both groups.
Journal of Learning Disabilities, Vol. 27, No. 4,
223-234 (1994) This article has been cited by other articles:
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