The Potential for Prevention Science in Middle and Late Adulthood: a Commentary on the Special Issue of Prevention Science.

This commentary on the special issue of Prevention Science, "Toward a Lifespan Prevention Science: A Focus on Middle and Late Adulthood" reviews the studies included in the issue, compares findings, and makes recommendations for future directions in this emerging field. Articles in this issue addressed a number of the key elements of prevention science, including identifying proximal and distal risk and protective factors that play a role in middle and late adult health and well-being, providing preliminary evidence for a preventive intervention to moderate stress reactivity, and proposing a theoretical approach to preventing substance misuse across the lifespan. Our commentary centers around three critical areas for mid and later life prevention science: the importance of theory building, a focus on alcohol and its role in midlife health, and health disparities.

Prospective Associations between Childhood Exposure to Living with Adult Alcohol Misuse and Major Depressive Disorder in Adulthood: The Role of Child Maltreatment.

Background: Many children grow up with adult alcohol misuse in the home. A clearer understanding of this exposure's long-term mental health consequences and the role of associated child maltreatment experiences and potential protective factors could guide relevant intervention strategies.

Objective: To prospectively evaluate the association between living with adult alcohol misuse during childhood and major depressive disorder (MDD) during adulthood; whether child maltreatment explains the association; and whether sex, school bonding, or neighborhood bonding moderate the association.

Associations of Cumulative and Point-in-Time Neighborhood Poverty and Walkability with Body Mass from Age 30 to 39.

Few studies examining the effects of neighborhood exposures have accounted for longitudinal residential history. This study examined associations of body mass index (BMI, kg/m) with neighborhood-level walkability and poverty, both assessed concurrently and cumulatively in the years leading up to BMI assessment. Participants (N = 808) were from a cohort study of individuals originally recruited from public schools in Seattle, Washington, in fifth grade in 1985.

Associations of attention problems and family context in childhood and adolescence with young adult daily smoking: General and smoking-specific family contexts.

Background: The potential heterogeneity in daily smoking across young adulthood has been relatively understudied. Relatedly, the unique and joint associations of earlier risk factors with young adults' daily smoking largely remain unknown. To address these gaps, this work identified subgroups of daily smoking trajectories during young adulthood and linked them to earlier attention problems and smoking-specific and general family context.

Cumulative Neighborhood Risk and Subsequent Internalizing Behavior among Asian American Adolescents.

Neighborhood disadvantage is a developmental context that may contribute to Asian American adolescent internalizing problems, yet there is a dearth of longitudinal studies as well as examination of cultural protective factors. Co-ethnic density, or the proportion of individuals of the same racial/ethnic background in the neighborhood that is often cited as a protective factor for racial/ethnic minority groups, has not been adequately examined in Asian American youth. This study examined the longitudinal association between cumulative neighborhood risk and internalizing behavior, and the moderating role of sex and co-ethnic density using an Asian American subsample (N = 177; 45.

Is e-cigarette use associated with better health and functioning among smokers approaching midlife?

Introduction: Many adult smokers have tried electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) as a less harmful alternative to combustible cigarettes. There is limited evidence, however, for the extent to which switching to e-cigarettes is associated with better health and functioning among nicotine users approaching their 40s-the beginning of midlife-when many health issues become more evident. This study examined the adoption of e-cigarette use ("vaping") among smokers in their 30s, and its association with diverse measures of healthy and successful aging at age 39.

Parent ENDS use predicts adolescent and young adult offspring ENDS use above and beyond parent cigarette use.

Purpose: Prior research has showed that parent combustible cigarette use predicts cigarette use among their offspring. This study used prospective longitudinal data from parents and offspring to test whether parent electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) use predicted a higher probability of ENDS use among their offspring.

Methods: Data were drawn from the Seattle Social Development Project - The Intergenerational Project (SSDP-TIP).

The role of electronic cigarette use for quitting or reducing combustible cigarette use in the 30s: Longitudinal changes and moderated relationships.

Background: Evidence for use of electronic cigarettes (e-cigs) as a potential aid in quitting or reducing combustible cigarette (c-cig) use is mixed. This study examined the extent to which e-cig initiation among smokers in their 30 s predicted quitting or reducing smoking or nicotine dependence symptoms by age 39, and whether the role of e-cigs in quitting differed by prospectively assessed moderators.

Methods: Data were from the Seattle Social Development Project (SSDP), a panel study of 808 diverse participants with high retention.

Applying the Social Development Model in Middle Childhood to Promote Healthy Development: Effects From Primary School Through the 30s and Across Generations.

Purpose: This paper describes the origins and application of a theory, the social development model (SDM), that seeks to explain causal processes that lead to the development of prosocial and problem behaviors. The SDM was used to guide the development of a multicomponent intervention in middle childhood called Raising Healthy Children (RHC) that seeks to promote prosocial development and prevent problem behaviors. This paper reviews and integrates the tests of the SDM and the impact of RHC.

E-cigarette use is associated with subsequent cigarette use among young adult non-smokers, over and above a range of antecedent risk factors: a propensity score analysis.

Background And Aims: There is a public health concern that the use of e-cigarettes among non-smoking young adults could be associated with transition to combustible cigarette use. The current study is a quasi-experimental test of the relationship between e-cigarette use and subsequent combustible cigarette use among young adult non-smokers, accounting for a wide range of common risk factors.

Design: Logistic regression was used to predict combustible cigarette use on three or more occasions at age 23 years based on age 21 e-cigarette use.

Evaluating the effect of retail marijuana legalization on parent marijuana use frequency and norms in U.S. States with retail marijuana legalization.

Objectives: To examine post-retail marijuana legalization (RML) change in marijuana use frequency and pro-marijuana norms among parents.

Methods: The Intergenerational Study, a longitudinal panel of parents (N = 668) and children, followed participants from 2002 to 2018, when parents were 27 and 43 years old, respectively. Three quarters of participants (74%) lived in an RML state and 142 (21%) had used marijuana in the 8 years prior to RML.

Marijuana Legalization and Youth Marijuana, Alcohol, and Cigarette Use and Norms.

Introduction: Rates of adolescent substance use have decreased in recent years. Knowing whether nonmedical marijuana legalization for adults is linked to increases or slows desirable decreases in marijuana and other drug use or pro-marijuana attitudes among teens is of critical interest to inform policy and promote public health. This study tests whether nonmedical marijuana legalization predicts a higher likelihood of teen marijuana, alcohol, or cigarette use or lower perceived harm from marijuana use in a longitudinal sample of youth aged 10-20 years.

Outcomes of Childhood Preventive Intervention Across 2 Generations: A Nonrandomized Controlled Trial.

Importance: Trials of preventive interventions for children that were implemented in the 1980s have reported sustained positive outcomes on behavioral and health outcomes into adulthood, years after the end of the intervention. This present study examines whether intervention in childhood may show sustained benefits across generations.

Objective: To examine possible intervention outcomes on the offspring of individuals (now parents) who participated in the Raising Healthy Children preventive intervention as children in the elementary grades.

Identifying and predicting criminal career profiles from adolescence to age 39.

Few longitudinal studies are capable of identifying criminal career profiles using both self-report and official court data beyond the 30s. The current study aims to identify criminal career profiles across three developmental periods using self-report data, validate these profiles with official court records and determine early childhood predictors. Data came from the Seattle Social Development Project (n = 808).

A trait-like propensity to experience internalizing symptoms is associated with problem alcohol involvement across adulthood, but not adolescence.

There are stable between-person differences in an internalizing "trait," or the propensity to experience symptoms of internalizing disorders, such as social anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder, and depression. Trait internalizing may serve as a marker of heightened risk for problem alcohol outcomes (such as heavier drinking, binge drinking, or alcohol dependence). However, prior research on the association between internalizing symptoms and alcohol outcomes has been largely mixed in adolescence, with more consistent support for an association during adulthood.

Neighborhood Deprivation Moderates Shared and Unique Environmental Influences on Hazardous Drinking: Findings from a Cross-Sectional Co-Twin Study.

There has been increased interest in the interplay of genetic and environmental factors in the development of problematic alcohol use, including socioeconomic conditions of the neighborhood. Using a co-twin design, we examined the extent to which contributions of genetic, shared environmental, and unique environmental influences on hazardous drinking differed according to levels of neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation. Data came from 1,521 monozygotic (MZ) and 609 dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs surveyed in Washington State.

Adult Social Environments and the Use of Combustible and Electronic Cigarettes: Opportunities for Reducing Smoking in the 30s.

Introduction: Reducing cigarette use is a major public health goal in the United States. Questions remain, however, about the potential for the social environment in the adult years-particularly in the 30s and beyond-to influence cigarette use. This study tested pathways hypothesized by the social development model to understand the extent to which social environmental factors at age 33 (eg, involvement with smokers or with physically active people) contribute to changes in cigarette use from age 30 to age 39.

Neighborhood Structural Factors and Proximal Risk for Youth Substance Use.

This study examined associations of neighborhood structural factors (census-based measures, socioeconomic disadvantage, and residential stability); self-reported measures of general and substance use-specific risk factors across neighborhood, school, peer, and family domains; and sociodemographic factors with substance use among 9th grade students. Data drawn from the Seattle Social Development Project, a theory-driven longitudinal study originating in Seattle, WA, were used to estimate associations between risk factors and past month cigarette smoking, binge drinking, marijuana use, and polysubstance use among students (N = 766). Results of logistic regression models adjusting for neighborhood clustering and including all domains of risk factors simultaneously indicated that neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage was associated with a significantly higher likelihood of cigarette smoking, binge drinking, and polysubstance use, but not marijuana use.

Time-varying effects of family smoking and family management on adolescent daily smoking: The moderating roles of behavioral disinhibition and anxiety.

Background: Family smoking environment and family management are associated with risk of teen smoking behaviors. However, less is known about whether these associations increase or decrease in strength across adolescence, and whether there are person-environment interactions. The current study examined 1) the age-varying main effects of family smoking and family management on adolescent daily smoking from ages 12-18 and tested 2) whether behavioral disinhibition and anxiety moderated these relationships.

Parenting Practices in the Context of Legal Marijuana: Voices from Seattle Parents.

Objectives: This study examined marijuana-related parenting attitudes, behaviors, and challenges in the context of nonmedical marijuana legalization in Washington State.

Method: Qualitative data were collected via 6 focus groups with a total of 54 parents of preteen and teenage children, following the opening of the first marijuana retail store in Seattle in 2014. A structured interview protocol was used to ask parents about their marijuana-related parenting behaviors and about information, skills, or strategies that parents might find helpful while raising children in a state where nonmedical marijuana use is legal for adults.

Longitudinal Associations among Depression, substance Abuse, and Crime: A Test of competing Hypotheses for Driving Mechanisms.

Purpose: Crime, depression, and substance abuse, often co-occur. This study examined competing models considering each problem domain individually as a driving mechanism for the other problems to better understand etiology and inform prevention efforts. Gender differences were also examined.

Effects of Social Development Intervention in Childhood on Adult Life at Ages 30 to 39.

Elementary schools can be effective sites for universal preventive interventions. Less is known about how long effects of intervention in elementary grades last. Can they improve outcomes in adulthood? To test effects of a social developmental intervention in the elementary grades on adult life through the 30s, the Seattle Social Development Project, a nonrandomized controlled trial, followed all consenting 5th-grade students (N = 808) from 18 Seattle public elementary schools from age 10 (in 1985) to age 39 (in 2014), with 88% retention.

Optimizing Assessment of Risk and Protection for Diverse Adolescent Outcomes: Do Risk and Protective Factors for Delinquency and Substance Use Also Predict Risky Sexual Behavior?

Assessments of youth risk and protective factors (RPFs) for substance use, delinquency, and violence have been used by communities to identify priorities and target them with prevention interventions. These same RPFs may also predict other youth problems. This study examined the strength and consistency of relationships of 41 ecological RPFs that predict antisocial behavior and substance use with sexual behavior outcomes in a sample of 2150 urban youth in 10th and 12th grade.

Young Adult Unemployment and Later Depression and Anxiety: Does Childhood Neighborhood Matter?

Young adulthood represents a developmental period with disproportionately heightened risk of losing a job. Young adult unemployment has been linked to increased mental health problems, at least in the short term. However, their possible long-term impacts, often referred as "scarring effects," have been understudied, possibly underestimating the magnitude of mental health burden that young adult unemployment generates.