Typologies of recanting of lifetime cigarette, alcohol and marijuana use during a six-year longitudinal panel study.

AIM

To identify if there are different typologies for adolescent self-reporters and recanters for alcohol, cigarette and marijuana use.

METHODS

This study is a secondary data analysis and utilized four waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth child panel data. The study included adolescents aged ten and older who self-reported ever use of cigarettes (n=872), marijuana (n=854) or alcohol (n=837). Consistent responders were those who reported lifetime use of a specific substance and continued to report such use at each latter wave of data collection. Latent class analyses were utilized to investigate if there are different types of self-reporters for each substance class.

RESULTS

Three unique groups for each substance was identified. The first group of users, who had a late age of onset, tended to be consistent self-reporters across waves. Those who were early onset users of cigarettes and marijuana tended to recant their use while early onset alcohol users were consistent reporters. Those with moderate ages of onset had no consistent recanting patterns. The highest degree of recanting was found among the early onset marijuana users.

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggest that youth who begin their use at an earlier age may not be as reliable reporters as youth who initiate use at later ages. Our results suggest that the veracity of prevalence estimates for licit and illicit substances could be different depending on the age of the respondent.