ArticlePreventive medicine2015
Diminished Alternative Reinforcement as a Mechanism Underlying Socioeconomic Disparities in Adolescent Substance Use.
Article in Preventive medicine, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
34 citing papers in PubMed, 40 citations in OpenAlex.
- Six-month follow-up of the 'Mi Mejor Plan' school-based prevention program: a pilot cluster randomized controlled trial among early adolescents in Chile.BMC public health · 2026Trial
- Reducing relative food reinforcement of infants using a music enrichment program: a randomized, controlled trial.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2022Trial
- Chronic ethanol vapor exposure suppresses ethanol self-administration and behavioral allocation in a concurrent operant choice paradigm in male and female Long Evans rats.Psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Reciprocal associations between adolescent extracurricular activity availability and engagement and alcohol-related cognitions and norms: Moderation by socioeconomic status.Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors · 2026Article
- Utility of substance-free alternatives in treating and preventing harmful substance use: A narrative review of the translational research spectrum.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2025Review
- Daily profiles of nondrug reward and their association with daily outcomes for people in recovery from opioid use disorder: An application of latent profile analysis applied to intensive longitudinal data.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2025Article
- Ambulatory assessment to advance the science of nondrug reward in addiction and recovery.Addiction research & theory · 2025Article
- Reward deprivation is associated with elevated alcohol demand in emerging adults.Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior · 2025Article
- Individual and Community level Developmental Adversities: Associations with Marijuana and Alcohol Use in Late-Adolescents and Young Adults.Journal of youth and adolescence · 2024Article
- Early substance use and the school environment: A multilevel latent class analysis.Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry = Journal de l'Academie canadienne de psychiatrie de l'enfant et de l'adolescent · 2024Article
- Measuring Cannabis Reinforcement among Young Adults: A Mixed Methods Examination.Cannabis (Albuquerque, N.M.) · 2024Article
- Engagement in types of activities and frequency of alcohol use in a national sample of United States adolescents.PloS one · 2023Article
- Reinforcer pathology of internet-related behaviors among college students: Data from six countries.Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology · 2022Article
- Cross-substance patterns of alcohol, cigarette, and cannabis use initiation in Black and White adolescent girls.Preventive medicine · 2022Article
- Adolescents' Use of Free Time and Associations with Substance Use from 1991 to 2019.Substance use & misuse · 2022Article
- Positive Psychological Characteristics and Substance Use in First Nation Adolescents.Substance use & misuse · 2022Article
- Anhedonia in Nicotine Dependence.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2022Review
- Psychometric evaluation of the Reward Probability Index in emerging adult drinkers.Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors · 2021Article
- Using greenspace and nature exposure as an adjunctive treatment for opioid and substance use disorders: Preliminary evidence and potential mechanisms.Behavioural processes · 2021Review
- Adolescent measures of family socioeconomic status: Reliability, validity, and effects on substance use behaviors in adolescence and young adulthood.Preventive medicine reports · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveThis study examined socioeconomic disparities in adolescent substance use utilizing a behavioral economic theoretical framework. We tested the hypothesis that teens of lower (vs. higher) socioeconomic status (SES) are vulnerable to substance use because they engage in fewer pleasurable substance-free activities that provide reinforcement and may deter substance use.
methodIn a cross-sectional correlational design, 9th grade students (N=2839; mean age=14.1years) in Los Angeles, California, USA completed surveys in Fall 2013 measuring SES (i.e., parental education), alternative reinforcement (engagement in pleasurable substance-free activities, e.g., hobbies), substance use susceptibility, initiation, and frequency, and other factors.
resultsFor multi-substance composite outcomes, lower parental education was associated with greater likelihood of substance use initiation in the overall sample, frequency of use among lifetime substance users, and susceptibility to substance use in never users. Substance-specific analyses revealed that lower parental education was associated with higher likelihood of initiating cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana use as well as greater susceptibility to use cigarettes in never smokers. Each inverse association between parental education and substance-related outcomes was statistically mediated by diminished alternative reinforcement; lower parental education was associated with lower engagement in alternative reinforcers, which, in turn, was associated with greater substance use susceptibility, initiation, and frequency.
conclusionThese results point to a behavioral economic interpretation for socioeconomic disparities in adolescent substance use. Replication and extension of these findings would suggest that prevention programs that increase access to and engagement in healthy and fun activities may reduce youth socioeconomic health disparities related to substance use.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.