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Objective Alcohol use among older adults is a major public health concern given potentially negative effects to health and functioning in this population. Little is known about context in which alcohol use among older adults occurs, or how context of use is associated with risk behaviors. Method Invitation letters were mailed to licensed drivers 65 years and older in Maryland. A total of 825 participants completed an online survey that assessed demographic characteristics, alcohol use, social context of drinking, and driving behaviors. Results The analytic sample consisted of 604 older adult current drinkers (55% male). A factor analysis revealed three separate contexts of drinking: social facilitation, emotional comfort, and relaxation. Drinking in the context of social facilitation was associated with driving after drinking. Drinking in the context of emotional comfort was associated with getting drunk, driving after drinking, and running a stop sign or red light. Drinking in the context of relaxation was associated with traffic risk behaviors, including running a stop sign or red light and getting in a near crash or collision. Conclusions Understanding the social context of alcohol use among older adults may be useful for targeting and attempting to modify risky alcohol use and driving behaviors.

Asthma is a common chronic disease among adolescent students, and was one of the 5 most common reasons for pediatric treat-and-release for emergency department visits among 5- to 14-year-old children in 2010.1 In 2013, 26.3% of high school and 23.5% of middle school students in Maryland reported ever having been told by a doctor or nurse that they had asthma.2 Avoidance of smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke has been recommended for people with asthma,3 because persons with asthma who smoke experience higher rates of hospitalization and reduced quality of life when compared with non-smokers with asthma.4 Previous studies have found that adolescents with current asthma smoke as many or more cigarettes than adolescents without asthma.5-8 For example, adolescents reporting having had an asthma episode or attack are more likely than other adolescents to report lifetime daily cigarette use and current frequent cigarette use.5 In addition, a recent study has shown that high school students with asthma have a higher prevalence of hookah smoking than other students.9 Despite the large number of studies identifying relationships between peers, school programs, family members, and media for adolescent smokers,10-13 our understanding of the role of these factors for asthmatic adolescent smokers remains limited. Previous studies of asthmatic adolescent smoking have examined environmental smoking exposure, alcohol, communication with parents, as well as intrapersonal factors such as autonomy, depression, smoking prevalence, asthma management.6,14,15 Sex has an impact on adolescents’ school social networks including peer selection, patterning of peer ties, and peer influence making.16 Research is needed to explore whether and to what extent exposure to smoking in mass media has a similar influence on adolescent tobacco use and variations by sex.17 This study aims to determine whether exposure to mass media and school social networks’ influence are associated with current smoking status among asthmatic adolescent students by sex and if these associations vary by sex.

BACKGROUND: Trait aggression has been linked to alcohol-related problems among college students. However, the individual conditions underlying this association are unknown. Empirical evidence and theory suggest the importance of distress tolerance, defined as an individual's ability to withstand negative affective states, in the relationship between trait aggression and alcohol use. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to examine whether distress tolerance moderates the relationship between trait aggression and problematic alcohol use. METHODS: Participants were 646 undergraduate students in a large university, who reported any lifetime alcohol use. The dependent variable, problematic alcohol use, was measured using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test total score. The main independent variable, trait aggression, was assessed on the negative emotionality scale of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire, and the moderator, distress tolerance, was determined using the Distress Tolerance Scale. RESULTS: Hierarchical linear regression analyses indicated a significant interaction between trait aggression and distress tolerance in predicting problematic alcohol use, adjusting for demographic variables, regular substance use, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms. Specifically, a significant positive relationship between trait aggression and problematic alcohol use was present among those with low, but not high, distress tolerance. CONCLUSIONS: Results provide evidence that college students with high levels of trait aggression are more likely to engage in problematic alcohol use if they also evidence an inability to tolerate negative affective states. Study implications are discussed, including the development of prevention and intervention programs that target distress tolerance skills. Language: en

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which effects of exposure to a brief intervention designed to increase parental restrictions on teen driving privileges persisted over time. Design: A total of 658 parents and their 16 year old adolescents were recruited from a local motor vehicle administration (MVA) site as adolescents successfully tested for provisional licenses. At the MVA, parents completed written surveys about expected teen driving during the first month of provisional licensure. Afterwards, on weeks assigned as intervention, parents watched a video and were given the video and a driving agreement to take home. Both parents and teens completed follow up telephone interviews about communication, amounts, and limits on teen driving at one month (579 dyads), four months (529 dyads), and nine months (528 dyads). Results: The results indicated that both intervention parents and teens were much more likely to report using a driving agreement at each follow up during the nine month period. Significant treatment group differences persisted for communication about driving, but effects related to limits on teen driving that were evident at one month declined over time. Reports for passenger, road, and overall limits remained significant at four months; fewer were present at nine months. There were no differences in amounts of teen driving at four or nine months. Conclusions: It is possible to reach parents through brief interventions at the MVA and successfully promote increases in initial parental restrictions on teen driving with modest persistence for at least four months.