TY - JOUR
T1 - Measuring alcohol use across the transition to adulthood
T2 - Racial/ethnic, sexual identity, and educational differences
AU - Fish, Jessica N.
AU - Pollitt, Amanda M.
AU - Schulenberg, John E.
AU - Russell, Stephen T.
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (awarded to Fish) grant number F32AA023138 . This research was also supported in part by grant number R24HD042849 , awarded to the Population Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development . The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. Preliminary analyses were supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (awarded to Russell) grant number R01AA020270 , and support for Russell from the Priscilla Pond Flawn Endowment at the University of Texas at Austin . Schulenberg acknowledges support from National Institute on Drug Abuse grants R01DA001411 and R01DA016575 .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2018/2
Y1 - 2018/2
N2 - Background Patterns of alcohol use change from adolescence to adulthood and may differ based on race/ethnicity, sexual identity, and education. If alcohol use measures do not operate consistently across groups and developmental periods, parameter estimates and conclusions may be biased. Objectives To test the measurement invariance of a multi-item alcohol use measure across groups defined by race/ethnicity, sexual identity, and college education during the transition to adulthood. Methods Using three waves from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we tested configural, metric, and scalar invariance of a 3-item alcohol use measure for groups defined by race/ethnicity, sexual identity, and college education at three points during the transition to adulthood. We then assessed longitudinal measurement invariance to test the feasibility of modeling developmental changes in alcohol use within groups defined by these characteristics. Results Overall, findings confirm notable variability in the construct reliability of a multi-item alcohol use measure during the transition to adulthood. The alcohol use measure failed tests of metric and scalar invariance, increasingly across ages, both between- and within-groups defined by race/ethnicity, sexual identity, and college education, particularly among females. Conclusions Measurement testing is a critical step when utilizing multi-item measures of alcohol use. Studies that do not account for the effects of group or longitudinal measurement non-invariance may be statistically biased, such that recommendations for risk and prevention efforts could be misguided.
AB - Background Patterns of alcohol use change from adolescence to adulthood and may differ based on race/ethnicity, sexual identity, and education. If alcohol use measures do not operate consistently across groups and developmental periods, parameter estimates and conclusions may be biased. Objectives To test the measurement invariance of a multi-item alcohol use measure across groups defined by race/ethnicity, sexual identity, and college education during the transition to adulthood. Methods Using three waves from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we tested configural, metric, and scalar invariance of a 3-item alcohol use measure for groups defined by race/ethnicity, sexual identity, and college education at three points during the transition to adulthood. We then assessed longitudinal measurement invariance to test the feasibility of modeling developmental changes in alcohol use within groups defined by these characteristics. Results Overall, findings confirm notable variability in the construct reliability of a multi-item alcohol use measure during the transition to adulthood. The alcohol use measure failed tests of metric and scalar invariance, increasingly across ages, both between- and within-groups defined by race/ethnicity, sexual identity, and college education, particularly among females. Conclusions Measurement testing is a critical step when utilizing multi-item measures of alcohol use. Studies that do not account for the effects of group or longitudinal measurement non-invariance may be statistically biased, such that recommendations for risk and prevention efforts could be misguided.
KW - Alcohol use
KW - College attendance
KW - Development
KW - Measurement invariance
KW - Race/ethnicity
KW - Sexual identity
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U2 - 10.1016/j.addbeh.2017.10.005
DO - 10.1016/j.addbeh.2017.10.005
M3 - Article
C2 - 29055208
AN - SCOPUS:85031502224
SN - 0306-4603
VL - 77
SP - 193
EP - 202
JO - Addictive Behaviors
JF - Addictive Behaviors
ER -