title: Temporal associations of popularity and alcohol use among middle school students.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The goal of this study is to better understand the longitudinal cross-lagged associations between popularity, assessed through self-rating and peer nominations, and alcohol use among middle school students.
  
  
  METHODS
  The analytical sample comprises 1,835 sixth- to eighth-grade students who were initially recruited from three California middle schools and surveyed in the fall and spring semesters of 2 academic years. Students reported on their background characteristics, past-month alcohol use, and perceived popularity. Additionally, students provided school-based friendship nominations, which were used to calculate peer-nominated popularity. A cross-lagged regression approach within a structural equation modeling framework was used to examine the longitudinal relationship between popularity (self-rated and peer-nominated) and alcohol use.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was a statistically significant (p = .024) association between peer-nominated popularity and the probability of alcohol consumption at the subsequent survey, but not vice versa. Our results suggest that in a scenario where 8% of students are past-month drinkers, each increase of five friendship nominations is associated with a 30% greater risk of being a current drinker at the next wave. We found no evidence of longitudinal associations between past-month alcohol consumption and self-rated popularity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Popularity is a risk factor for drinking during the middle school years, with peer-nominated popularity being more predictive of use than self-perceptions of popularity. To inform alcohol prevention efforts for middle school students, additional research is needed to better understand why adolescents with a larger number of school-based friendship ties are more inclined to drink.
authors.affiliation: RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA 90407, USA. jtucker@rand.org
authors.forename: Joan S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Tucker
authors.forename: Jeremy N V
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Miles
authors.forename: Elizabeth J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: D'Amico
authors.forename: Annie J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Harold D
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Green
authors.forename: Regina A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Shih
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001244:Association; D002140:California / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D012307:Risk Factors; D013334:Students / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires