Patterns of substance use among Argentinean adolescents and analysis of the effect of age at first alcohol use on substance use behaviors.

Objective: The present study used an empirically based method to characterize substance use in a sample of Argentinean adolescents and analyzed the association between age at drinking onset and substance use behaviors. Differences in alcohol expectancies and personality traits as a function of different patterns of substance use were also explored.

Method: Data were obtained from 583 adolescents aged 13-18years (M=15.

[Development and psychometric assessment of the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire for Argentinean Children (CEA-N)].

A new measure of positive and negative alcohol expectancies for children aged 8 to 12 years was developed and validated. Study 1: 117 children answered a structured open-format question to provide information regarding the effects of alcohol use that they anticipate. The pool of items obtained was analyzed by a group of three experts according to the following criteria: item correspondence with two different theoretical models and item semantic clarity.