Assessing the effects of Families for Safe Dates, a family-based teen dating abuse prevention program.

Purpose: To examine the effects of a family-based teen dating abuse prevention program, Families for Safe Dates, primarily on outcomes related to testing the conceptual underpinnings of the program including (1) factors motivating and facilitating caregiver engagement in teen dating abuse prevention activities, and 2) risk factors for teen dating abuse, and secondarily on dating abuse behaviors.

Methods: Families were recruited nationwide using listed telephone numbers. Caregivers and teens completed baseline and 3-month follow-up telephone interviews (n = 324).

Implementation of adolescent family-based substance use prevention programs in health care settings: Comparisons across conditions and programs.

BACKGROUND: The majority of knowledge related to implementation of family-based substance use prevention programs is based on programs delivered in school and community settings. The aim of this study is to examine procedures related to implementation effectiveness and quality of two family-based universal substance use prevention programs delivered in health care settings, the Strengthening Families Program: For Parents and Youth 10-14 (SFP) and Family Matters (FM). These evidence-based programs were delivered as part of a larger random control intervention study designed to assess the influence of program choice vs.

Parent and child characteristics related to chosen adolescent alcohol and drug prevention program.

Mothers were allowed to choose between two different family-based adolescent alcohol-drug prevention strategies and the choice was examined in relation to parent and teen characteristics. Under real world conditions, parents are making choices regarding health promotion strategies for their adolescents and little is known about how parent and teen characteristics interact with programs chosen. The two programs were: Family Matters (FM) (Bauman KE, Foshee VA, Ennett ST et al.

Risk and protective factors distinguishing profiles of adolescent peer and dating violence perpetration.

Purpose: Violence profiles were created on the basis of whether adolescents used violence against both peers and dates, against dates but not peers, against peers but not dates, or against neither peers nor dates. We determined (1) whether risk and protective factors from five domains (individual attributes and behaviors, the peer, family, school, and neighborhood contexts), based primarily on social learning and social control theories, were associated with violence profiles, (2) whether factors distinguishing profiles varied by gender, and (3) which of the domains was most important in distinguishing profiles.

Methods: Data are from adolescents in grades 8 through 10 from schools in three nonmetropolitan Counties (n = 2,907).

A social contextual analysis of youth cigarette smoking development.

Introduction: We apply a social contextual perspective based on Bronfenbrenner's ecology of human development theory to understanding development of youth cigarette smoking. We examine the contributions of family, peer, school, and neighborhood contexts. Context attributes examined were derived from social learning and social control theories.

Relationships of adolescents' perceptions of parental and peer behaviors with cigarette and alcohol use in different neighborhood contexts.

This study examined the relationships of adolescents' perceptions of parental and peer behaviors with cigarette and alcohol use in different neighborhood contexts. The sample included 924 adolescents (49% boys, 51% girls) 12-14 years of age whose addresses were matched with 1990 census block groups. Six neighborhood types were identified through a cluster analysis.

The Development of Four Types of Adolescent Dating Abuse and Selected Demographic Correlates.

This study determined the shape of trajectories from ages 13 to 19 of four types of dating abuse perpetration and examined whether the demographic characteristics of sex, minority status, socioeconomic status, and family structure systematically explained variation in the trajectories. The data are from 5 waves of data collected from 973 adolescents participating in the control group of a randomized trial. The mean trajectory for psychological dating abuse was positive linear, but the mean trajectories were curvilinear for moderate physical, severe physical, and sexual dating abuse.

The social ecology of adolescent alcohol misuse.

A conceptual framework based on social ecology, social learning, and social control theories guided identification of social contexts, contextual attributes, and joint effects that contribute to development of adolescent alcohol misuse. Modeling of alcohol use, suggested by social learning theory, and indicators of the social bond, suggested by social control theory, were examined in the family, peer, school, and neighborhood contexts. Interactions between alcohol modeling and social bond indicators were tested within and between contexts.

Moderation and mediation in the relationship between mothers' or fathers' serious psychological distress and adolescent substance use: findings from a national sample.

Purpose: This study estimated percentages of adolescents living with a mother or father with serious psychological distress (SPD), and examined moderation and mediation of the relationships between mother or father SPD and adolescent substance use.

Methods: We analyzed data from nationally representative samples of adolescents interviewed with their mothers (n = 4734) and fathers (n = 3176) in the combined 2002 and 2003 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health (NSDUHs).

Results: An estimated 4.

Moderation of the association between parent and adolescent cigarette smoking by selected sociodemographic variables.

This study examines variation in the associations between cigarette smoking by mother or father and adolescent cigarette smoking by selected sociodemographic characteristics. The study data are from nationally representative samples of adolescents aged 12 to 17 living with their mothers (n=4734) and/or fathers (n=3176). Mother cigarette smoking was more strongly associated with cigarette smoking by daughters than sons.

What accounts for demographic differences in trajectories of adolescent dating violence? An examination of intrapersonal and contextual mediators.

Purpose: To identify intrapersonal and contextual factors that mediate associations between demographic variables (minority status, socioeconomic status, family structure, gender, and neighborhood disadvantage) and trajectories of moderate and severe physical dating violence perpetration from ages 13-19 years.

Methods: Multi-wave data from 959 adolescents were analyzed using formal mediation analysis in a multilevel analytical framework.

Results: Gender and neighborhood disadvantage were not associated with trajectories of dating violence, and therefore mediation was not examined for those variables.

Peer smoking, other peer attributes, and adolescent cigarette smoking: a social network analysis.

Peer attributes other than smoking have received little attention in the research on adolescent smoking, even though the developmental literature suggests the importance of multiple dimensions of adolescent friendships and peer relations. Social network analysis was used to measure the structure of peer relations (i.e.

Serious psychological distress among parenting and nonparenting adults.

Objectives: We compared the prevalence of serious psychological distress among parenting adults with the prevalence among nonparenting adults and the sociodemographic correlates of serious psychological distress between these 2 populations.

Methods: We drew data from 14240 parenting adults and 19224 nonparenting adults who responded to the 2002 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. We used logistic regression procedures in our analysis.

Typologies of adolescent dating violence: identifying typologies of adolescent dating violence perpetration.

Acts scales, the most common way of measuring partner violence, have been criticized for being too simplistic to capture the complexities of partner violence. An alternative measurement approach is to use typologies that consider various aspects of context. In this study, the authors identified typologies of dating violence perpetration by adolescents.

A Test of Biosocial Models of Adolescent Cigarette and Alcohol Involvement.

We tested biosocial models that posit interactions between biological variables (testosterone, estradiol, pubertal status, and pubertal timing) and social context variables (family, peer, school, and neighborhood) in predicting adolescent involvement with cigarettes and alcohol in a sample of 409 adolescents in grades 6 and 8. Models including the biological and contextual variables and their interactions explained significantly more variance in adolescent cigarette and alcohol involvement than did models including only the main effects of the biological and contextual variables. Post-hoc analyses of significant interactions suggested that, in most case, moderation occurred in the hypothesized direction.

Assessing the effects of the dating violence prevention program "safe dates" using random coefficient regression modeling.

The Safe Dates Project is a randomized trial for evaluating a school-based adolescent dating violence prevention program. Five waves of data were used to examine the effects of Safe Dates over time including primary and secondary prevention effects, moderators, and mediators of program effects. Using random coefficients models, with multiple imputation of missing data, significant program effects were found at all four follow-up periods on psychological, moderate physical, and sexual dating violence perpetration and moderate physical dating violence victimization.

Neighborhood influences on adolescent cigarette and alcohol use: mediating effects through parent and peer behaviors.

The influence of neighborhoods on adolescent behaviors has received increasing research attention. In the present study, we use structural equation models to specify pathways from neighborhoods to adolescent cigarette and alcohol use through parental closeness, parental monitoring, parent substance use, and peer substance use. We use a national sample with 959 adolescents 12 to 14 years of age whose residential addresses were matched with 1990 Census tracts to provide neighborhood characteristics.

Longitudinal predictors of serious physical and sexual dating violence victimization during adolescence.

Background: This study identifies potentially modifiable risk factors for the onset of and chronic victimization from serious physical and sexual dating violence.

Methods: One thousand two hundred ninety-one 8th and 9th graders from a county in North Carolina were assessed annually for 5 and 4 years, respectively.

Results: For males, having been hit by an adult with the intention of harm, having low self-esteem, and having been in a physical fight with a peer predicted onset of serious physical dating violence victimization.

Assessing the long-term effects of the Safe Dates program and a booster in preventing and reducing adolescent dating violence victimization and perpetration.

Objectives: This study determined 4-year postintervention effects of Safe Dates on dating violence, booster effects, and moderators of the program effects.

Methods: We gathered baseline data in 10 schools that were randomly allocated to a treatment condition. We collected follow-up data 1 month after the program and then yearly thereafter for 4 years.

An assessment of the validity of adolescent self-reported smoking using three biological indicators.

This research examined the validity of self-reports of adolescent smoking and explored factors that may influence agreement between self-reported smoking and biological indicators. Data were obtained from 1,881 adolescents as part of a household probability study in the southeastern United States. Adolescents aged 12-14 years reported their tobacco use and provided breath and saliva samples.

State legislators' beliefs about legislation that restricts youth access to tobacco products.

Better understanding of the cognitive framework for decision making among legislators is important for advocacy of health-promoting legislation. In 1994, the authors surveyed state legislators from North Carolina, Texas, and Vermont concerning their beliefs and intentions related to voting for a hypothetical measure to enforce legislation preventing the sale of tobacco to minors, using scales based on the theory of planned behavior. Attitude (importance), subjective norm (whether most people important to you would say you should or should not vote for the law), perceived behavioral control (ability to cast one's vote for the law), and home state were independently and significantly related to intention to vote for the law's enforcement.

Influence of a family program on adolescent smoking and drinking prevalence.

Reducing the prevalence of adolescent cigarette smoking and alcohol drinking are public health goals of the United States. Although families have strong influence on their children, few randomized studies have examined whether family-directed programs influence those behaviors in general universal populations. This paper reports findings from an evaluation of a family program that features the mailing of four booklets to adult family members with follow-up telephone calls by health educators.