Table 1.
Psychological Measures: Sources and Cronbach’s Alphas
| Domain/Scale (no. of items) | Cronbach’s Alpha | Source | Sample Items |
|---|---|---|---|
| Demographics | |||
| Gender | NA | ||
| Age | NA | Age at Time 4 | |
| Ethnicity | NA | Are you Hispanic? | |
| Socioeconomic status (5) | NA | Combination of educational level and job status of parents | |
| Personality Attributes | |||
| Ego integration (6) | .53 | Original | Do you feel like losing your tempter at people? |
| Violence toward others (10) | .84 | Chavez, Oetting, & Swaim, 1994 (34) | How often have you held a weapon (gun or club) to someone? |
| Psychological symptoms (17) | .89 | Derogatis & Melisaratos, 1983 (35) | Do you sometimes feel hopeless about the future? |
| Impulsivity (4) | .64 | Brook et al., 1990 (6) Jackson, 1974 (36) |
Do you often act on the spur of the moment without stopping to think? |
| Partner Relationships | |||
| Satisfaction with partner (9) | .73 | Spanier, 1976 (37) | All things considered, how satisfied are you with your marriage/relationship |
| Marital harmony (7) | .91 | Spanier, 1976 (37) | Do you act very affectionately with each other? |
| Arguments with partner (5) | .81 | Original | How often do the two of you argue or fight about things? |
| Peers | |||
| Deviance (6) | .76 | Huizinga, Menard & Elliott, 1989 (38) | How many of your friends have gotten in trouble with the police or the law for something they did? |
| Illegal drug use (4) | NA | Original | How many friends have ever used cannabis, or other illegal drugs, like cocaine, crack, heroin, uppers, and downers? |
| Association with drug using peers (8) | .74 | Oetting & Beauvais, 1987 (39) | How much have close friends influenced your use of illegal drugs? |
| Work | |||
| Skipped work (2) | .77 | Original | How often have you called in sick when you were not sick? |
| Work achievement (1) | NA | Original | At your most recent job, how often have you received good evaluations from your boss? |
| Neighborhood | |||
| Drug offering (1) | NA | Original | How often has someone on the street offered you cannabis or any other illegal drug? |
| Violence toward subject (10) | .79 | Chavez, Oetting, & Swaim, 1994 (34) | How often has someone held a weapon (gun, club or knife) to you? |
| Drug availability (8) | .79 | Monitoring the Future Questionnaire 2002, Form 40 Part F (40) | How difficult is it to get cannabis, cocaine, crack, or other illegal drugs like uppers, downers, LSD or Heroin? |
| Substance Use | |||
| Nicotine dependence (6) | .94 | Heatherton, Kozlowski, Frecker & Fagerstrom, 1991 (41) | How many cigarettes have you smoked in the past 30 days? |
| Alcohol use (8) | .96 | Monitoring the Future Questionnaire 1994, Form 3 Part D (42) | During the last 5 years, has your use of alcohol caused you to behave in ways that you later regretted? |
| Problems with cannabis use (9) | .98 | Monitoring the Future Questionnaire 1994, Form 3 Part D (42) | During the last 5 years, has your use of cannabis damaged your social life, popularity, or reputation? |
Note: 1. The alphas are estimated from our data.
2. N/A = Not Applicable