title: Self-control, symptomatology, and substance use precursors: test of a theoretical model in a community sample of 9-year-old children.
abstract: The authors tested a theoretical model of how self-control constructs are related to psychological symptomatology and variables that predispose to involvement versus noninvolvement in substance use: willingness to use, affiliation with peers who use, and efficacy for resisting use. Data were obtained from a sample of 332 children (mean age = 9.3 years) who were interviewed in households. Structural equation modeling showed that good self-control was related to more positive well-being and less externalizing symptomatology, whereas poor self-control was related to more externalizing and to more internalizing symptomatology. Externalizing had paths to willingness and peer use, well-being had inverse paths to these variables, and poor self-control had a direct effect to lower resistance efficacy. Multiple-group analyses indicated gender differences in paths from symptomatology to predisposing factors. Implications for understanding vulnerability to substance use are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10461, USA. wills@aecom.yu.edu
authors.forename: Thomas A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Wills
authors.forename: Michael G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Ainette
authors.forename: Don
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mendoza
authors.forename: Frederick X
authors.initials: FX
authors.lastname: Gibbons
authors.forename: Gene H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Brody
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010379:Peer Group; D012649:Self Concept; D012737:Sex Factors; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*