Review article
Assessment of factors affecting the validity of self-reported health-risk behavior among adolescents: evidence from the scientific literature

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1054-139X(03)00052-1Get rights and content

Abstract

Abstract

We reviewed the existing empirical literature to assess cognitive and situational factors that may affect the validity of adolescents’ self-reports of alcohol and other drug use, tobacco use, behaviors related to unintentional injuries and violence, dietary behaviors, physical activity, and sexual behavior. Specifically, we searched for peer-reviewed journal articles published in 1980 or later that examined the factors affecting self-report of the six categories of behavior listed above. We also searched for studies describing objective measures for each behavior. Self-reports of each of six types of health-risk behaviors are affected by both cognitive and situational factors. These factors, however, do not threaten the validity of self-reports of each type of behavior equally. The importance of assessing health-risk behaviors as part of research activities involving adolescents necessitates the use of self-report measures. Researchers should familiarize themselves with the threats to validity inherent in this type of assessment and design research that minimizes these threats as much as possible.

Section snippets

Factors affecting validity

Two major theoretical perspectives have been advanced to explain the source of validity problems that may emerge with some self-reported data. The cognitive perspective focuses on the mental processes underlying self-reported data and attributes validity problems to inaccuracies arising from comprehension, recall, and other cognitive operations. The situational perspective focuses on validity problems that arise from factors related to social desirability and interviewing conditions. These two

Methods

To find relevant articles, we searched Medline, ERIC, Sociological Abstracts, and PsycINFO using the following keywords: “validity,” “reliability,” “self-report,” “self-assessment,” “alcohol use,” “drug use,” “tobacco use,” “injury,” “violence,” “suicide,” “diet,” “nutrition,” “physical activity,” and “sexual behavior.” We limited the searches to adolescent populations. We also cross-referenced the reference sections of relevant articles already in our possession and obtained through the

Cognitive factors

Reports of alcohol and other drug use usually are obtained for one or more reference periods (e.g., 1 month, 1 year) as well as for the individual’s lifetime. Problems in the retrieval of the required information can occur because behaviors have to be both recalled and placed within the appropriate time period. The difficulty of this task is increased because respondents may be unable to remember events that occurred while they were under the influence of abused substances.

To the extent that

Discussion

As our review of the literature has shown, self-reports of each of six types of health-risk behaviors are affected by both cognitive and situational factors. These factors, however, do not threaten the validity of self-reports of each type of behavior equally. Further, each type of behavior differs in terms of the extent to which it can be validated by an objective measure.

This review has several limitations. First, although we attempted to be systematic and thorough in our literature search,

References (101)

  • C. Poulin et al.

    The validity of a province-wide student drug surveyLessons in design

    Can J Public Health

    (1993)
  • B. Hedges et al.

    Cigarette smoking

  • H. Aguinis et al.

    Conditions under which a bogus pipeline procedure enhances the validity of self-reported cigarette smoking

    J Appl Soc Psychol

    (1993)
  • A. Osman et al.

    Validation of the Multi-Attitude Suicide Tendency Scale in adolescent samples

    J Clin Psychol

    (1994)
  • C. Cavadini et al.

    Assessment of adolescent food habits in Switzerland

    Appetite

    (1999)
  • A.E. Field et al.

    Comparison of 4 questionnaires for assessment of fruit and vegetable intake

    Am J Public Health

    (1998)
  • H.R.H. Rockett et al.

    Validation of a youth/adolescent food frequency questionnaire

    Prev Med

    (1997)
  • J.C. Rosen et al.

    The validity of self-reported weight loss and weight gain efforts in adolescents

    Int J Eat Disord

    (1987)
  • R.J. Hill et al.

    The validity of self-reported energy intake as determined using the doubly labelled water technique

    Br J Nutr

    (2001)
  • D.A. Schoeller

    Limitations in the assessment of dietary energy intake by self-report

    Metabolism

    (1995)
  • J.F. Sallis et al.

    Seven-day recall and other physical activity self-reports in children and adolescents

    Med Sci Sports Exerc

    (1993)
  • K.F. Janz et al.

    The stability of children’s physical activity as measured by accelerometry and self-report

    Med Sci Sports Exerc

    (1995)
  • M.T. Richardson et al.

    Ability of Caltrac accelerometer to assess daily physical activity levels

    J Cardiopulm Rehabil

    (1995)
  • J.K. Murphy et al.

    The validity of children’s self-reports of physical activityA preliminary study

    J Hum Hypertens

    (1990)
  • K. Ford et al.

    Methodological considerations for survey research on sexual behaviorUrban African American and Hispanic youth

    J Sex Res

    (1991)
  • M. Davoli et al.

    Reliability of sexual behavior data among high school students in Rome

    Epidemiol

    (1992)
  • S. Newcomer et al.

    Adolescents’ honesty in a survey of sexual behavior

    J Adolesc Res

    (1988)
  • M. Zelnik et al.

    Sex and Pregnancy in Adolescence

    (1981)
  • K.W. Smith et al.

    HIV risk among Latino adolescents in two New England cities

    Am J Public Health

    (1993)
  • D.J. Aaron et al.

    Reproducibility and validity of an epidemiologic questionnaire to assess past year physical activity

    Am J Epidemiol

    (1995)
  • N.Z. Hilton et al.

    On the validity of self-reported rates of interpersonal violence

    J Interpers Violence

    (1998)
  • G.L. Martin et al.

    Assessing the validity of self-reported adolescent cigarette smoking

    J Drug Educ

    (1988)
  • C.F. Cannell et al.

    Research on interviewing techniques

  • D. Eisenhower et al.

    Recall errorSources and bias reduction techniques

  • Lessler JT, Tourangeau R, Salter W. Questionnaire design in the cognitive research laboratory. Vital and Health...
  • B. Means et al.

    Cognitive research on response error in survey questions on smoking

    (1992)
  • T. DeMaio

    Social desirability and survey measurementA review

  • S. Sudman et al.

    Response Effects in Surveys

    (1974)
  • C.S. Alexander et al.

    Consistency of adolescents’ self-report of sexual behavior in a longitudinal study

    J Youth Adolesc

    (1993)
  • Winters KC, Stinchfield RD, Henly GA, Schwartz RH. Validity of adolescent self-report of alcohol and other drug...
  • J.E. Gans et al.

    Choice of research setting in understanding adolescent health problems

    J Adolesc Health

    (1995)
  • J.G. Bachman et al.

    When four months equal a yearInconsistencies in student reports of drug use

    Public Opin Q

    (1981)
  • S.L. Bailey et al.

    The characterization of inconsistencies in self-reports of alcohol and marijuana use in a longitudinal study of adolescents

    J Stud Alcohol

    (1992)
  • R. Engels et al.

    Inconsistencies in adolescents’ self-reports of initiation of alcohol and tobacco use

    Addict Behav

    (1997)
  • A.M. Shillington et al.

    Self-report stability of adolescent substance use

    Drug Alcohol Depend

    (2000)
  • P.M. O’Malley et al.

    Reliability and consistency in self-reports of drug use

    Int J Addict

    (1983)
  • Schober SE, Fe Caces M, Pergamit MR, Branden L. Effect of mode of administration on reporting of drug use in the...
  • C.F. Turner et al.

    Effects of mode of administration and wording on reporting of drug use

  • D.L. Wright et al.

    A comparison of computer-assisted and paper-and-pencil self-administered questionnaires in a survey on smoking, alcohol, and drug use

    Public Opin Q

    (1998)
  • T.J. Beebe et al.

    An evaluation of computer-assisted self-interviews in a school setting

    Public Opin Q

    (1998)
  • Cited by (989)

    • Conduct problems and sexting: Gender differences

      2024, Computers in Human Behavior
    • Parent and Child-Reported Strengths of Children With ADHD

      2024, Canadian Journal of School Psychology
    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text