title: Influences of behavior and academic problems at school entry on marijuana use transitions during adolescence in an African-American sample.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The aim of this study was to examine how patterns of academic and behavior problems in the first grade relate to longitudinal transitions in marijuana use from middle school through entry into high school among African-Americans.
  
  
  METHODS
  Latent class and latent transition analyses were conducted on a community sample of 458 low-income, urban-dwelling African-Americans.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Two behavior problem classes emerged at school entry; externalizing and attention/concentration. Academic problems co-occurred with both problem behavior classes although more strongly with attention/concentration. Youth in the attention/ concentration problem class were more likely to transition from no marijuana involvement to use and problems beginning in the 7th grade and to use and problems given the opportunity to use marijuana early in high school compared to youth with no problems. Youth in the externalizing behavior problem class were significantly more likely to transition from no involvement to having a marijuana opportunity during the transition to high school compared to youth in the attention/concentration problems class.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings highlight the importance of developing prevention programs and providing school services that address the co-occurrence of academic and behavior problems, as well as their subtype specific risks for marijuana involvement, particularly for low-income minority youth who may be entering school less ready than their non-minority peers. These findings also provide evidence for a need to continue to deliver interventions in middle school and high school focused on factors that may protect youth during these critical transition periods when they may be especially vulnerable to opportunities to use marijuana based on their academic and behavioral risk profiles.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistical Sciences, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, United States; Department of Social Sciences and Health Policy, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem NC 27157, United States. Electronic address: brebouss@wakehealth.edu.
authors.forename: Beth A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Reboussin
authors.affiliation: Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, United States.
authors.forename: Nicholas S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Ialongo
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral and Community Health, University of Maryland School of Public Health, College Park, MD 20742, United States.
authors.forename: Kerry M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Green
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000367:Age Factors; D015142:Baltimore; D002648:Child; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008385:Marijuana Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011203:Poverty; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
keywords: Academic difficulties; African-American; Behavior problems; Latent class analysis; Latent transition analysis; Marijuana