Identification of key items regarding personality, environment, and life events to assess risk and resilience factors for harmful alcohol drinking in adolescents

Abstract

Aims: Alcohol misuse often develops during adolescence involving interacting factors deriving from personality, environment and life events that can be assessed with well-established instruments. However, for specific research purposes, involving the assessment of large data sets, it may be beneficial having a short tool of key items representing the most important risk factors. Methods: We identified a set of key items from standard questionnaires assessed in about 2000 adolescents. In our longitudinal study we identified important items on personality, environment, and life events explaining alcohol drinking behaviour at the age of 14 years and the increase of alcohol consumption 2 years later. Results: The key items explained 33.4% of variance in alcohol drinking behaviour (vs. 34.8% for original battery) and can be completed in six minutes. Conclusions: Our item list represents a powerful easy-to-use tool for the examination of alcohol drinking behaviour in adolescents.