The impact of interviewer characteristics on drug use reporting by male juvenile arrestees

We evaluated the importance of interviewer and subject effects on cocaine a nd marijuana use disclosure in a sample of over 3,000 male juvenile arreste es. Analyses evaluated the viability of Social Attribution and Conditional Social Attribution models of interviewer effects. The viability of alternat ive models was investigated in the context of comparative analyses excludin g and including statistical adjustments for the clustering of responses by interviewers. Interviewer effects were more salient in models predicting ma rijuana disclosure than in models predicting cocaine disclosure. Logistic r egression analyses provided support for Social Attribution and Conditional Social Attribution models of interviewer effects. Models suggested large in terviewer cluster effects. Cluster adjustment altered interpretation of eff ects for both cocaine and marijuana. Subject race/ethnicity effects were sa lient in models predicting disclosure for both drugs, but were especially l arge in models predicting cocaine disclosure.