TABLE 1.
Measures
| Variables | No. of items |
α or r | Sample item | Answer options |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Demographic variables (T1) | ||||
| Gender | 1 | NA | Female (1), male (2) | |
| Ethnicity | 1 | NA | What is your ethnicity? | African American (1), Puerto Rican (2) |
| Age | 1 | NA | What is your age? | NA |
| Control Variables (T1) | ||||
| Depressive symptoms(22) | 2 | r = .47 | Do you sometimes feel unhappy, sad, or depressed? | not at all (0), somewhat (1), mostly (2), extremely (3) |
| Low self-control(23–25) | 8 | α =.78 | Do you enjoy doing things you should not, just for the fun of it? | completely false (1), mostly false (2), mostly true (3), completely true (4) |
| Delinquency(26) | 10 | α =.75 | During the last 5 years, how often have you gotten into a serious fight? | never (0), once (1), twice (2), three or four times (3), five or more times (4) |
| Alcohol use | 1 | NA | How much do you drink beer, wine, or hard liquor? | none (0), less than once a week (1), once a week to several times a week (2), one or two drinks every day (3), three or more drinks every day (4) |
| Cigarette use | 1 | NA | How many cigarettes do you smoke? | none (0), a few cigarettes or less a week (1), 1–5 cigarettes a day (2), 1/2 a pack a day (3), about 1 pack a day (4), more than one pack a day (5) |
| Illicit drug use other than marijuana | 1 | NA | How often have you used cocaine, crack, ecstasy, etc.? | never (0), a few times a year or less (1), about once a month (2), several times a month (3), once a week or more (4) |
| Independent Variable (T1–T4) | ||||
| Marijuana use | 1 | NA | How often have you ever used marijuana?” at T1 and “How often have you used marijuana in the past 5 years?” at T2, T3, and T4 | Same as the options of illicit drug other than marijuana |
| Dependent Variable (T5) | ||||
| Tobacco dependence(27,28) | 7 | NA | 1) physical tolerance, 2) signs of withdrawal when the subject refrained from smoking, 3) smoking in larger amounts and/or over a longer period than intended, 4) unsuccessful attempts to cut down or control the amount of smoking, 5) a large amount of time spent smoking (e.g., chain-smoking), 6) giving up or reducing social, occupational, or recreational activities due to smoking, and 7) continuing smoking despite knowing it has caused mental or physical health problems. | no (0), yes (1) |
Note. α = Cronbach’s alpha, r = inter-item correlation, NA = not applicable, T1= time 1 (age 14), T4 = time 4 (age 29), T5 = time 5 (age 32)