Original articleTesting the Question-Behavior Effect of Self-Administered Surveys Measuring Youth Drug Use
Section snippets
Methods
Data used in the analyses were collected as part of the Community Youth Development Study, a community-randomized trial of the CTC prevention framework. CTC is a manualized, community-led prevention planning and monitoring system designed to reduce youth drug use and delinquent behaviors and promote positive youth development. The CTC trial involved 24 communities from seven states that were matched in pairs within state on sociodemographic factors, and then randomly assigned to serve as CTC
Results
Analyses did not find evidence supporting a short- or long-term question-behavior effect on drug use in grade 6 (Table 1). The likelihood of grade 6 drug use in students who were asked about their drug use in grade 5 (the initial sample) was not significantly greater than the likelihood of drug use among those who completed the survey only in grade 6 (the accretion sample). The rate of past 30-day use of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana was nearly identical in both groups, indicating no
Discussion
This study does not find any evidence that asking youth about past drug use encourages or causes them to engage in future drug use. Our findings indicated no difference in the prevalence of self-reported drug use among those surveyed in grade 5 and again in grade 6 (initial sample) compared with those surveyed in grade 6 only (accretion sample). If there had been lasting harm from asking youth about past drug use, we would have found higher prevalence of past 30-day substance use in grade 6
Acknowledgments
An earlier version of this article was presented in May 2015 at the annual meeting of the Society for Prevention Research held in Washington, DC.
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Conflicts of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
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