Measurement of alcohol use and misuse in a cohort of students followed from grade 6 through grade 12.

In following a cohort of students from grade 6 through grade 12 for the purpose of evaluating an Alcohol Misuse Prevention Study curriculum, a substudy of the measurement of alcohol use and misuse was conducted. The 6-year follow-up of young people over time afforded a good opportunity to assess the adequacy of the initially chosen measures to 1) provide data with statistically desirable properties, and 2) be sensitive to and representative of the wide range of alcohol use and misuse patterns among adolescents as they mature. Revised measures of alcohol use and misuse were developed from the data responding to the same questionnaire items that had been used throughout the study. The revised measures demonstrated good psychometric properties and may be useful in other studies.