Rural-urban differences in the distribution of parent-reported risk factors for substance use among young adolescents.
OBJECTIVE
We examined rural-urban differences in cumulative risk for youth substance use. A recent report [National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) 2000] found that the rural-urban distribution of substance use and known risk factors for substance use differed; in many cases rural youth showed higher levels of use, as well as higher levels of risk factors. The current investigation, while not directly examining substance use, further examined rural-urban differences in the distribution of risk factors for youth substance use, based on information from parent reports.


METHODS
Study 1 data were collected from a random sample of Midwestern parents (n = 339) with a young adolescent between the ages of 11 and 13 years. Study 2 data were collected from a second sample of Midwestern parents (n = 593).


RESULTS
Analyses of rural-urban comparisons demonstrated higher levels of cumulative risk among rural youth. An evaluation of the sensitivity of the analysis to rural-urban classification schemes indicated that the findings were robust, but that there was some minor variation in rural-urban differences by classification scheme.


CONCLUSIONS
Results contribute to an explanation of findings from earlier reports of rural-urban differences in substance use, and suggest directions for future research on rural-urban distributions of youth risk factors.
Spoth
R
R
Institute for Social and Behavioral Research, Iowa State University, Ames 50010-8296, USA. rlspoth@iastate.edu
Goldberg
C
C
Neppl
T
T
Trudeau
L
L
Ramisetty-Mikler
S
S
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015146:Midwestern United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D010290:Parents; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*