Predictors of Aggressive Behavior While under the Influence of Illicit Drugs among Young Adult Methamphetamine Users.

Background: Prior research indicates that patterns of combined alcohol and methamphetamine use may be associated with experiencing subjective feelings of aggression or hostility during methamphetamine use episodes.

Objectives: This study examines whether subjective effects of methamphetamine use (i.e.

Simultaneous use of alcohol with methamphetamine but not ecstasy linked with aggression among young adult stimulant users.

Introduction: Illicit stimulants are often combined with alcohol in nightlife entertainment districts, an environment where aggressive behaviour commonly occurs. While alcohol and methamphetamine use are each associated with aggressive behaviour, relatively little is known about the impact of the combined use of alcohol and amphetamine-type stimulants (i.e.

Social contacts and Ecstasy offers: findings of a population-based study.

Ecstasy (MDMA) use is relatively common among young adults in many developed countries. However, little is known about how young non-users are first introduced to Ecstasy, including the relative contribution of peer networks and individual risk factors. We assess the role of social contact with Ecstasy-using peers in regard to young adults' exposure to offers of Ecstasy, using data from the Natural History Study, a population-based study conducted in Australia.

Using population screening for recruitment of young adults engaged in illicit drug use: methodological issues and sampling outcomes.

Social stigma, legal sanctions and the associated lack of sampling frames create barriers to the probabilistic sampling of those engaged in a variety of behaviour, including illicit drug use. We used a novel sampling approach to recruit respondents into a longitudinal study examining amphetamine-type stimulant use. A young adult population was screened for lifetime drug use to create a sampling frame of amphetamine-type stimulant users and non-users.

The school environment and student health: a systematic review and meta-ethnography of qualitative research.

Background: There is increasing interest in promoting young people's health by modifying the school environment. However, existing research offers little guidance on how the school context enables or constrains students' health behaviours, or how students' backgrounds relate to these processes. For these reasons, this paper reports on a meta-ethnography of qualitative studies examining: through what processes does the school environment (social and physical) influence young people's health?

Methods: Systematic review of qualitative studies.

Psychological Distress and Drug Use Patterns of Young Adult Ecstasy Users: A Complementary Analysis of Australian Datasets.

We examine psychological distress (PD) in young adult Ecstasy users in relation to age of initiation and frequency of use of Ecstasy, cannabis, alcohol, and tobacco. Using two Australian community samples, we assess whether different sampling methods produce comparable estimates of these associations. The Natural History Study of Drug Use (NHSDU; N = 339) in 2009 used population sampling and the 2009 Ecstasy and Related Drug Reporting System (EDRS; N = 359) used purposive sampling.

Young adults' trajectories of Ecstasy use: a population based study.

Young adults' Ecstasy use trajectories have important implications for individual and population-level consequences of Ecstasy use, but little relevant research has been conducted. This study prospectively examines Ecstasy trajectories in a population-based sample. Data are from the Natural History Study of Drug Use, a retrospective/prospective cohort study conducted in Australia.

Young adults' recreational social environment as a predictor of ecstasy use initiation: findings of a population-based prospective study.

Aims: To examine prospectively the contribution of the recreational social environment to ecstasy initiation.

Design: Population-based retrospective/prospective cohort study.

Setting: Data from screening an Australian young adult population to obtain samples of users and non-users of ecstasy.

The effects of the school environment on student health: a systematic review of multi-level studies.

Health outcomes vary between schools and it is theorised that this may be partly attributable to variation in the school environment. Existing systematic reviews have not drawn authoritative conclusions because of methodological limitations in the review or studies available. We identified 42 multi-level studies, ten of which were judged of sufficient quality to narratively synthesize.

How market-oriented education policies might influence young people's health: development of a logic model from qualitative case studies in English secondary schools.

Background: School systems are increasingly typified by diversity of provision, parental choice and publication of performance data. Schools shape their students' lifestyles and health, but the effects of 'marketisation' are under-researched. The authors use qualitative data to develop a logic model regarding such effects.

Protocol for a systematic review of the effects of schools and school-environment interventions on health: evidence mapping and syntheses.

Background: Schools may have important effects on students' and staff's health. Rather than treating schools merely as sites for health education, 'school-environment' interventions treat schools as settings which influence health. Evidence concerning the effects of such interventions has not been recently synthesised.