Diverging trends in alcohol use and mental health in Australian adolescents: A cross-cohort comparison of trends in co-occurrence.

Background: In recent years, psychological distress in Western countries has rapidly increased among older adolescents while alcohol use has declined, though little is known about younger adolescents. It is also unclear if and how these trends relate to co-occurring alcohol use and distress. This study sought to examine temporal changes in the prevalence of distress, alcohol use, and their co-occurrence among young Australians.

The long-term effectiveness of a personality-targeted substance use prevention program on aggression from adolescence to early adulthood.

Background: Addressing aggressive behavior in adolescence is a key step toward preventing violence and associated social and economic costs in adulthood. This study examined the secondary effects of the personality-targeted substance use preventive program on aggressive behavior from ages 13 to 20.

Methods: In total, 339 young people from nine independent schools ( age = 13.

Effect of a selective personality-targeted prevention program on 7-year illicit substance related outcomes: A secondary analysis of a cluster randomized controlled trial.

Background: This study evaluated the efficacy of the selective personality-targeted PreVenture program in reducing cannabis and stimulant use over a 7-year period spanning adolescence and early adulthood.

Methods: A cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted in 14 Australian schools. Schools were randomized to PreVenture, a brief personality-targeted selective intervention, comprising two 90-minute facilitator-led sessions delivered one week apart, or a control group (health education as usual).

Adapting a coach-assisted web-based intervention for parents of adolescents who refuse school: qualitative study with users of the Partners in Parenting Plus programme.

Background: School refusal is a heterogenous problem which typically emerges in adolescence and co-occurs with internalising disorders. A substantial proportion of adolescents do not respond to existing treatment modalities; thus, novel, effective intervention options are needed. Partners in Parenting Plus (PiP+) is a coach-assisted, web-based intervention designed to empower parents to respond to adolescent internalising disorders.

Effect of Selective Personality-Targeted Alcohol Use Prevention on 7-Year Alcohol-Related Outcomes Among High-risk Adolescents: A Secondary Analysis of a Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Alcohol consumption is one of the leading preventable causes of burden of disease worldwide. Selective prevention of alcohol use can be effective in delaying the uptake and reducing harmful use of alcohol during the school years; however, little is known about the durability of these effects across the significant transition from early adolescence into late adolescence and early adulthood.

Objective: To examine the sustained effects of a selective personality-targeted alcohol use prevention program on alcohol outcomes among adolescents who report high levels of 1 of 4 personality traits associated with substance use.

The 7-Year Effectiveness of School-Based Alcohol Use Prevention From Adolescence to Early Adulthood: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Universal, Selective, and Combined Interventions.

Objective: Alcohol use is a leading cause of burden of disease among young people. Prevention strategies can be effective in the short-term; however little is known about their longer-term effectiveness. The aim of this study was to examine the sustainability of universal, selective, and combined alcohol use prevention across the critical transition period from adolescence into early adulthood.

It's the Content That Counts: Longitudinal Associations between Social Media Use, Parental Monitoring, and Alcohol Use in an Australian Sample of Adolescents Aged 13 to 16 Years.

(1) Background: More time spent on social media has been linked to increased alcohol use, with exposure to peer alcohol-related content on social media (content exposure) named as a critical factor in this relationship. Little is currently known about whether early content exposure may have lasting effects across adolescent development, or about the capacity of parental monitoring of social media use to interrupt these links. (2) Methods: These gaps were addressed in both cross-sectional and longitudinal contexts among a longitudinal sample of Australian secondary school students ( = 432) across the ages of 13-16.

The relationship between early risk-taking behavior and mental health problems among a nationally representative sample of Australian youth.

Background: Earlier engagement in risk-taking behaviors has been associated with more severe mental health problems across development. However, sex differences in risk-outcome relationships remain underexplored and mental health outcomes spanning both ends of the internalizing and externalizing spectra are rarely considered within the same sample. The present study examined associations between age at initiation of alcohol use, illicit drug use, and sexual intercourse, and symptoms of internalizing, externalizing, depression and self-harm, for males and females.

Pathways to prevention: protocol for the CAP (Climate and Preventure) study to evaluate the long-term effectiveness of school-based universal, selective and combined alcohol misuse prevention into early adulthood.

Background: Alcohol use and associated harms are among the leading causes of burden of disease among young people, highlighting the need for effective prevention. The Climate and Preventure (CAP) study was the first trial of a combined universal and selective school-based approach to preventing alcohol misuse among adolescents. Initial results indicate that universal, selective and combined prevention were all effective in delaying the uptake of alcohol use and binge drinking for up to 3 years following the interventions.