Healthful Behaviors: Do They Protect African-American, Urban Preadolescents from Abusable Substance Use?

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Abstract
Purpose.: Relationships between positive health behaviors and abusable substance use in preadolescent, urban, African-American schoolchildren were investigated. Design.: Personal interviews and classroom surveys were used to assess health behavior and abusable substance use cross-sectionally. Setting.: All respondents resided in the District of Columbia and attended the public school system. Subjects.: The sample consisted of 303 urban, African-American fourth and fifth graders (151 boys, 152 girls). Measures.: Classroom surveys assessed drinking, drinking without parental knowledge, smoking, use of other abusable substances, friends' use, self-esteem, and academic performance. Personal interviews assessed children's diet, exercise, overall health behavior, and socioeconomic status. Results.: Logistic regressions showed that children who engaged in more health behaviors (exercise and proper nutrition) were one-third less likely to have smoked (OR=0.66) or to have drunk alcohol (OR=0.63) than those who engaged in fewer healthful activities. However, when gender, socioeconomic status, self-esteem, academic performance, personal use, and friends' use of other abusable substances were controlled, relationships were no longer statistically significant. Conclusions.: These findings suggest that although positive health behaviors appear to be inversely related to abusable substance use in urban, African-American préadolescents, the relationship may be spurious.