title: Screening for "substance abuse" among school-based youth in Mexico using the Problem Oriented Screening Instrument (POSIT) for Teenagers.
abstract: Indices of classification accuracy of the Substance Use/Abuse scale of a Spanish-language version of the Problem Oriented Screening Instrument for Teenagers (POSIT) were evaluated among school-based youth in Mexico. Participants were 1203 youth attending one middle school (N = 619) and one high school (N = 584) in the third largest city of Coahuila, a northern border state in Mexico in May 1998. More than 94% of youth enrolled in the participating middle school and 89% of youth enrolled in the participating high school completed the International Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health. Indices of classification accuracy of the POSIT Substance Use/Abuse scale were evaluated against a "drug abuse" problem severity criterion that combined youth meeting DSM-IV criteria for alcohol abuse/dependence disorders with youth having used other illicit drugs five or more times in their lifetime. The present study findings suggest that using a cut score of one or two on the POSIT Substance Use/Abuse scale generally yields optimal classification accuracy indices that vary somewhat by gender and school subgroups. Further, classification accuracy indices of the POSIT Substance Use/Abuse scale are slightly better when used among high school males due, in part, to the higher base rate of serious involvement among this group compared to others.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA. wlatimer@jhsph.edu
authors.forename: William W
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Latimer
authors.forename: Megan S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: O'Brien
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McDouall
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Toussova
authors.forename: Leah J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Floyd
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vazquez
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D008800:Mexico / Q000453:epidemiology; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012737:Sex Factors; D013334:Students; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology