A Systematic Review of Loneliness and Smoking: Small Effects, Big Implications.

Background: Research supports an association between smoking and negative affect. Loneliness is a negative affective state experienced when a person perceives themselves as socially isolated and is associated with poor health behaviors and increased morbidity and early mortality.

Objectives: In this article, we systematically review the literature on loneliness and smoking and suggest potential theoretical and methodological implications.

Diffusion of innovations theory applied to global tobacco control treaty ratification.

This study applies diffusion of innovations theory to understand network influences on country ratification of an international health treaty, the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC). From 2003 to 2014 approximately 90% of United Nations member countries ratified the FCTC. We hypothesized that communication between tobacco control advocates on GLOBALink, a 7000-member online communication forum in existence from 1992 to 2012, would be associated with the timing of treaty ratification.

Consistency of self-reported drug use events in a mixed methods study of people who inject drugs.

Background: Little is known about the consistency of information provided by people who inject drugs (PWID) during quantitative and qualitative interviews in mixed methods studies.

Objectives: We illustrate the use of the intraclass correlation coefficient, descriptive statistics, and regression to assess the consistency of information provided during a mixed methods study of PWID living in Los Angeles and San Francisco, California, USA.

Methods: Age of first use of heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana, powder cocaine, and crack cocaine and first injection of heroin, methamphetamine, and powder cocaine were collected during an interviewer administered computer-assisted personal interview followed by an in-depth qualitative interview (n = 102).

Enhancing the benefits of written emotional disclosure through response training.

Writing about a personal stressful event has been found to have psychological and physical health benefits, especially when physiological response increases during writing. Response training was developed to amplify appropriate physiological reactivity in imagery exposure. The present study examined whether response training enhances the benefits of written emotional disclosure.

Bullying victimization as a mediator of associations between cultural/familial variables, substance use, and depressive symptoms among Hispanic youth.

Objectives: This article examines the antecedents and consequences of bullying victimization among a sample of Hispanic high school students. Although cultural and familial variables have been examined as potential risk or protective factors for substance use and depression, previous studies have not examined the role of peer victimization in these processes. We evaluated a conceptual model in which cultural and familial factors influenced the risk of victimization, which in turn influenced the risk of substance use and depression.