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This report describes the development and measurement characteristics of a new measure of smoking knowledge, attitudes, and practices (S-KAP) among treatment providers. Data are based on survey responses from 336 paid staff working in one of three drug abuse treatment or HIV care settings. Exploratory factor analysis, used to examine the factor structure, pointed towards five underlying factors: a single "knowledge" factor, three "attitude" factors ('treatment barriers,' 'counselor self-efficacy,' and 'counselor attitudes') and a single "practices" factor. The Knowledge scale had a standardized Cronbach's alpha coefficient of. 85. The coefficients for Barriers, Self-Efficacy, and Attitudes were .81, .72, and .74, respectively The Practice scale had a standardized Cronbach's alpha coefficient of .91. These results indicate that the proposed scales have reasonably good psychometric characteristics and will allow researchers to quantify staff knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding smoking cessation treatments and issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to identify subgroups of pregnant women at imminent (1 year) risk for major depressive episodes. Participants were 84 low-income, predominantly Mexican women using public sector obstetrics services who participated in monthly interviews during pregnancy and up to 6 months postpartum. Participants were designated a priori as "more vulnerable" or "less vulnerable" to future perinatal depression based on evidence of mood regulation problems defined as (a) a self-reported history of major depressive episodes, (MDE) and/or(b) high current depressive symptom scores on a continuous depression scale. Two definitions of a major depressive episode based on meeting 2 or 3 DSM-IV MDE criteria, were used to measure the incidence of a new major depressive episode. Results suggest that more vulnerable groups (i. e., with the greatest mood regulation problems) had a higher incidence of major depressive episodes than less vulnerable groups. Implications for screening and developing preventive interventions for postpartum depression are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To foster generalization of science education from the classroom to other important problems we investigate how adolescents reason about scientific claims in advertisements. We administered interviews to 88 seventh and eighth graders to assess their criteria for brand decision making and to determine whether they use these criteria when assessing claims in advertisements. We found that adolescents change their product criteria frequently, that they lose track of their own criteria when confronted with advertisers' claims and that advertisements may encourage adolescents to add criteria to those they consider when making brand decision. Implications include the potential for impaired decision making due to an information overload and the possibility that adolescents may adopt social-psychological criteria which when not fulfilled could lead to loss of self-esteem. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A parallel-process latent growth curve model was used to model alcohol and marijuana use (vs. nonuse). Participation in team sports and gender were considered to be time-invariant covariates. The sample consisted of 8,179 youth from the National Survey of Parents and Youth. Data were collected over four yearly rounds. Analysis revealed that being part of a competitive sports team was related to a lower probability of marijuana initiation, but to increased rates of alcohol use over time. Males had significantly higher levels of marijuana initiation and decreases in rates of alcohol use over time; females had significantly greater rate of increase in alcohol use over time. Analysis suggests that youth involved in sports are less likely to use marijuana over time. This information may help to uncover other predictors of use over time and to inform policy making as well design as effective prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]