Social self-control, sensation seeking and substance use in samples of US and Russian adolescents.
OBJECTIVE
To compare the relations of social self-control and sensation seeking with substance use across samples of US and Russian adolescents.


METHODS
Cross-sectional data were obtained from 362 tenth-graders from Ufa, Russia, and 965 tenth-graders from California.


RESULTS
Lack of social self-control was significantly related with higher alcohol and hard drug use in the Russian sample and higher cigarette use in the US sample. Higher sensation-seeking showed significant associations with higher cigarette and alcohol use in the Russian sample and higher alcohol, marijuana, and hard drug use in the US sample.


CONCLUSIONS
As with US adolescents, prevention programs for Russian adolescents may also benefit from being tailored to higher sensation-seekers and including self-control skills training.
Pokhrel
Pallav
P
Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research, University of Southern California, Alhambra, CA 91803, USA. pokhrel@usc.edu
Sussman
Steve
S
Sun
Ping
P
Kniazer
Vadim
V
Masagutov
Radik
R
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D004326:Drinking; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D015995:Prevalence; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012426:Russia / Q000453:epidemiology; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D012927:Social Control, Informal; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology