The Impact of the Good Behavior Game on Risk for Drug Use Disorder in an Agent-Based Model of Southern Sweden.

Objective: Drug use disorder (DUD) is a worldwide problem, and strategies to reduce its incidence are central to decreasing its burden. This investigation seeks to provide a proof of concept for the ability of agent-based modeling to predict the impact of the introduction of an effective school-based intervention, the Good Behavior Game (GBG), on reducing DUD in Scania, Sweden, primarily through increasing school achievement.

Method: We modified an existing agent-based simulation model of opioid use disorder to represent DUD in Scania County, southern Sweden.

The conditioning effects of positive experiences on the ACEs-offending relationship in adolescence.

Background: Research shows that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are problematic and may impact delinquency and arrest in adolescence. However, resiliency theories suggest the association between ACEs and delinquency/arrest may be mitigated by positive childhood experiences (PCEs).

Objective: This study tests the hypothesis that an accumulation of PCEs ameliorates the relationship between ACEs and delinquency and arrest during adolescence.

Evidence for a Causal Relationship Between Academic Achievement and Cigarette Smoking.

Introduction: Academic achievement (AA) is associated with smoking rates. Can we determine the degree to which this relationship is likely a causal one?

Methods: We predict smoking in male conscripts (mean age 18.2) assessed from 1984 to 1991 (N = 233 248) and pregnant females (mean age 27.

Nature of the Causal Relationship Between Academic Achievement and the Risk for Alcohol Use Disorder.

Objective: We evaluated the claim that interventions to improve academic achievement can reduce the risk for alcohol use disorder (AUD).

Method: Using nationwide data for individuals born in Sweden from 1972 to 1981 (n = 930,182), we conducted instrumental variable and co-relative analyses of the association between academic achievement and AUD with a mean 21.4-year follow-up.

Making Evidence-Based Interventions Relevant for Users: A Comparison of Requirements for Dissemination Readiness Across Program Registries.

This study compares prevention program registries in current use on their level of support for users seeking to implement evidence-based programs. Despite the importance of registries as intermediaries between researchers and the public, and although previous studies have examined how registries define their standards for methodological soundness and evidence of efficacy, little research has focused on the degree to which registries consider programs' . The result is that registry users are uncertain whether listed programs and their necessary support materials are even available for implementation.

Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adolescent Exposure to Violence.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are relatively common and can lead to harmful outcomes in adolescence and adulthood. The current study investigates the relationship between ACEs and exposure to violence in adolescence, an important area of research given the high rates of victimization in adolescence and the need for evidence-based strategies to prevent and reduce the negative consequences of victimization. The study also examines sex differences in the effects of ACEs, given that some research finds that the prevalence and impact of ACEs vary for females and males.

Perceptions of danger, tolerance of delinquency, and economic disadvantage: Examining neighborhood influences on child physical abuse.

Background: Social disorganization theory posits that both structural and social features of a particular geographic unit are associated with criminal behavior. Despite many tests of social disorganization theory, few studies have assessed its relevance to child abuse.

Objective: This study seeks to explain neighborhood variation in child maltreatment.

The causal effect of resilience on risk for drug abuse: a Swedish national instrumental variable, co-relative and propensity-score analysis.

Background: We sought to quantify and investigate the causal nature of the association between resilience at age 18 and future drug abuse (DA).

Method: In a national sample of Swedish men (n = 1 392 800), followed for a mean of 30.3 years, resilience was assessed during military conscription and DA defined from medical, criminal and pharmacy registers.

Child Maltreatment and Aggressive Behaviors in Early Adolescence: Evidence of Moderation by Parent/Child Relationship Quality.

The cycle of violence suggests that maltreatment increases children's aggression, but research shows that many children are resilient to the harms caused by maltreatment. This study examines whether or not parent/child relationship quality accounts for variation in the impact of maltreatment on aggression and hypothesizes that the effect will be weaker for children who have better relationships with their caregivers. Race differences in these effects are also examined.

Scaling up Evidence-Based Interventions in US Public Systems to Prevent Behavioral Health Problems: Challenges and Opportunities.

A number of programs, policies, and practices have been tested using rigorous scientific methods and shown to prevent behavioral health problems (Catalano et al., Lancet 379:1653-1664, 2012; National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, 2009). Yet these evidence-based interventions (EBIs) are not widely used in public systems, and they have limited reach (Glasgow et al.

Academic Achievement and Drug Abuse Risk Assessed Using Instrumental Variable Analysis and Co-relative Designs.

Importance: Low academic achievement (AA) in childhood and adolescence is associated with increased substance use. Empirical evidence, using longitudinal epidemiologic data, may provide support for interventions to improve AA as a means to reduce risk of drug abuse (DA).

Objective: To clarify the nature of the association between adolescent AA and risk of DA by using instrumental variable and co-relative analysis designs.

How Do Family-Focused Prevention Programs Work? A Review of Mediating Mechanisms Associated with Reductions in Youth Antisocial Behaviors.

The development and evaluation of family-focused preventive interventions has grown significantly in recent decades, but the degree to which these interventions produce anticipated improvements in the family environment, and the extent to which such changes are associated with reductions in youth antisocial behaviors (ASB), is unclear. This article seeks to answer these questions by reviewing evidence from tests of mediation conducted in evaluations of family-focused interventions. Interventions are drawn from family-focused interventions rated as Model Plus, Model, or Promising on the Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development Web site ( http://www.

The cycle of victimization: The relationship between childhood maltreatment and adolescent peer victimization.

Child maltreatment has been demonstrated to have many short- and long-term harmful consequences for victims, but whether or not child abuse is associated with an increased risk of peer victimization during adolescence is unclear. This study analyzed prospective data from 831 children and parents participating in the Longitudinal Studies on Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN) to investigate the relationships between child physical and sexual abuse and adolescent victimization by peers, as well as the potential for gender to moderate these relationships. Results from ordinal logit regression models indicated that children who were physically abused prior to age 12, based on official reports, parent reports, and child reports, had a greater risk of experiencing more intimidation and physical assault by peers at age 16.

Evaluation of Community-Level Effects of Communities That Care on Adolescent Drug Use and Delinquency Using a Repeated Cross-Sectional Design.

The Communities That Care (CTC) prevention system has shown effects on reducing incidence and prevalence of problem behaviors among a panel of youth followed from 5th through 12th grade. The present report examines whether similar intervention effects could be observed using a repeated cross-sectional design in the same study. Data were from a community-randomized trial of 24 US towns.

Effects of Communities That Care on Males' and Females' Drug Use and Delinquency 9 Years After Baseline in a Community-Randomized Trial.

Unlabelled: This study tested sustained effects of the Communities That Care (CTC) prevention system on health-risking behaviors 9 years after baseline in a community-randomized trial involving 24 towns in seven states. Earlier analyses found sustained effects on abstinence from drug use and delinquency through Grade 12 in a panel of fifth graders. At age 19, 91 % (n = 3986) of the living panel completed the survey.

Benefit-Cost Analysis of a Randomized Evaluation of Communities That Care: Monetizing Intervention Effects on the Initiation of Delinquency and Substance Use Through Grade 12.

Objective: To determine whether the Communities That Care (CTC) prevention system is a cost-beneficial intervention.

Methods: Data were from a longitudinal panel of 4,407 youth participating in a randomized controlled trial including 24 towns in 7 states, matched in pairs within state and randomly assigned to condition. Significant differences favoring intervention youth in sustained abstinence from delinquency, alcohol use, and tobacco use through Grade 12 were monetized and compared to economic investment in CTC.

A multi-level analysis of the impact of neighborhood structural and social factors on adolescent substance use.

Background: This paper examined the effects of neighborhood structural (i.e., economic disadvantage, immigrant concentration, residential stability) and social (e.

The Moderating Effects of Peer and Parental Support on the Relationship Between Vicarious Victimization and Substance Use.

General strain theory (GST) hypothesizes that youth are more likely to engage in delinquency when they experience vicarious victimization, defined as knowing about or witnessing violence perpetrated against others, but that this relationship may be attenuated for those who receive social support from significant others. Based on prospective data from youth aged 8 to 17 participating in the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN), this article found mixed support for these hypotheses. Controlling for prior involvement in delinquency, as well as other risk and protective factors, adolescents who reported more vicarious victimization had an increased likelihood of alcohol use in the short term, but not the long term, and victimization was not related to tobacco or marijuana use.

Exposure to violence, substance use, and neighborhood context.

Adolescent exposure to violence and substance use are both public health problems, but how neighborhood context contributes to these outcomes is unclear. This study uses prospective data from 1416 adolescents to examine the direct and interacting influences of victimization and neighborhood factors on adolescent substance use. Based on hierarchical Bernoulli regression models that controlled for prior substance use and multiple individual-level factors, exposure to violence significantly increased the likelihood of marijuana use but not alcohol use or binge drinking.

Differential Effects of Parental Controls on Adolescent Substance Use: For Whom Is the Family Most Important?

Objective: Social control theory assumes that the ability of social constraints to deter juvenile delinquency will be invariant across individuals. This paper tests this hypothesis and examines the degree to which there are differential effects of parental controls on adolescent substance use.

Methods: Analyses are based on self-reported data from 7,349 10th-grade students and rely on regression mixture models to identify latent classes of individuals who may vary in the effects of parental controls on drug use.

Effects of the Communities That Care system on cross-sectional profiles of adolescent substance use and delinquency.

Introduction: Adolescent substance use and delinquency are major public health problems. Although community-based prevention strategies have been recommended to produce population-level reductions in rates of substance use and delinquency, few models show evidence of effectiveness.

Purpose: To test the efficacy of a community-based prevention system, Communities That Care (CTC), in reducing community rates of problem behaviors, particularly effects on specific profiles of adolescent substance use and delinquency in eighth- and tenth-graders.

Avoiding violent victimization among youths in urban neighborhoods: the importance of street efficacy.

Objectives: We investigated how street efficacy--the perceived ability to avoid dangerous and unsafe situations--is related to violent victimization across different levels of neighborhood disadvantage.

Methods: We used 2 waves of self-report data collected between 1995 and 1999 from 1865 youths in the 9-, 12-, and 15-year-old cohorts of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods to measure violent victimization, street efficacy, and risk factors for violent victimization. We also analyzed data from the 1990 US Census to measure categories of neighborhood concentrated disadvantage for which the cohorts of youths reside.

The protective effects of neighborhood collective efficacy on adolescent substance use and violence following exposure to violence.

Research has demonstrated that exposure to violence can result in many negative consequences for youth, but the degree to which neighborhood conditions may foster resiliency among victims is not well understood. This study tests the hypothesis that neighborhood collective efficacy attenuates the relationship between adolescent exposure to violence, substance use, and violence. Data were collected from 1,661 to 1,718 adolescents participating in the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, who were diverse in terms of sex (51% male, 49% female), race/ethnicity (48% Hispanic, 34% African American, 14% Caucasian, and 4% other race/ethnicity), and age (mean age 12 years; range 8-16).

Victimization experiences and adolescent substance use: does the type and degree of victimization matter?

Evidence indicates an association between victimization and adolescent substance use, but the exact nature of this relationship remains unclear. Some research focuses solely on the consequences of experiencing indirect victimization (e.g.

The effects of exposure to violence and victimization across life domains on adolescent substance use.

This study uses longitudinal data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) to examine the effects of exposure to school violence, community violence, child abuse, and parental intimate partner violence (IPV) on youths' subsequent alcohol and marijuana use. We also examine the cumulative effects of being exposed to violence across these domains. Longitudinal data were obtained from 1,655 adolescents and their primary caregivers participating in the PHDCN.