Examining anger as a predictor of drug use among multiethnic middle school students.
BACKGROUND
Anger, a component of negative affect, has previously been associated with increased drug use primarily among white high school-aged students. However, few studies have examined these associations over time, and fewer have examined them among younger adolescents and students of color. Affective factors may play a greater role in drug use for girls relative to boys; yet, little is known regarding differences in associations between affect and drug use by gender.


METHODS
The current study used data from the control condition (N = 2025) of a drug and violence preventive intervention trial to examine the association between self-reported anger levels among multiethnic urban adolescents in the sixth grade and their use of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana use 1 year later. Potential gender differences were examined as well.


RESULTS
Multivariate generalized estimating equations models found anger to be significantly associated with increases in smoking, drinking, and marijuana use. There were no significant gender differences found for any of the drug use outcomes.


CONCLUSIONS
Results are consistent with studies conducted on primarily white high school youth, where anger had a small but significant effect on drug use over time. The findings also suggest that drug prevention programs should include emotion regulation skills, such as anger management, in addition to drug resistance skills.
Nichols
Tracy R
TR
Center for Women's Health and Wellness, School of Health and Human Performance, University of North Carolina Greensboro, Greensboro, NC 27402, USA. trnicho2@uncg.edu
Mahadeo
Madhuvanti
M
Bryant
Kylie
K
Botvin
Gilbert J
GJ
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D000374:Aggression / Q000187:drug effects; D000786:Anger; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009519:New York City / Q000453:epidemiology; D012572:School Health Services; D012737:Sex Factors; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology*; D014504:Urban Health; D014754:Violence / Q000517:prevention & control