Healthful behaviors: do they protect African-American, urban preadolescents from abusable substance use?

PURPOSE

Relationships between positive health behaviors and abusable substance use in preadolescent, urban, African-American schoolchildren were investigated.

DESIGN

Personal interviews and classroom surveys were used to assess health behavior and abusable substance use cross-sectionally.

SETTING

All respondents resided in the District of Columbia and attended the public school system.

SUBJECTS

The sample consisted of 303 urban, African-American fourth and fifth graders (151 boys, 152 girls).

MEASURES

Classroom surveys assessed drinking, drinking without parental knowledge, smoking, use of other abusable substances, friends' use, self-esteem, and academic performance. Personal interviews assessed children's diet, exercise, overall health behavior, and socioeconomic status.

RESULTS

Logistic regressions showed that children who engaged in more health behaviors (exercise and proper nutrition) were one-third less likely to have smoked (OR=0.66) or to have drunk alcohol (OR=0.63) than those who engaged in fewer healthful activities. However, when gender, socioeconomic status, self-esteem, academic performance, personal use, and friends' use of other abusable substances were controlled, relationships were no longer statistically significant.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that although positive health behaviors appear to be inversely related to abusable substance use in urban, African-American preadolescents, the relationship may be spurious.