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Background: Behavioral disinhibition (externalizing/impulsivity) and behavioral inhibition (internalizing/anxiety) may contribute to the development of alcohol abuse and dependence. But tests of person-by-environment interactions in predicting alcohol use disorders are needed. This study examined the extent to which interactions between behavioral disinhibition, behavioral inhibition and family management during adolescence predict alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence at age 27.Methods: This study used longitudinal data from a community sample of 808 men and women interviewed from ages 10 to 27 in the Seattle Social Development Project. Zero-order correlations followed by a series of nested regressions examined the relationships between individual characteristics (behavioral disinhibition and behavioral inhibition/anxiety) and environment (good vs. poor family management practices during adolescence) in predicting alcohol abuse and dependence criterion counts at age 27.Results: Behavioral disinhibition and poor family management predicted increased likelihood of both alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence at age 27. Behavioral inhibition/anxiety was unrelated to both outcomes. Youths high in behavioral disinhibition were at increased risk for later alcohol abuse and dependence only in consistently poorly managed family environments. In consistently well-managed families, high levels of behavioral disinhibition did not increase risk for later alcohol abuse or dependence.Conclusions: Behavioral disinhibition increases risk for alcohol abuse and dependence in early adulthood only for individuals who experience poor family management during adolescence. Interventions seeking to reduce environmental risks by strengthening consistent positive family management practices may prevent later alcohol abuse and dependence among individuals at risk due to behavioral disinhibition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent advances in prevention science provide evidence that adolescent health and behavior problems can be prevented by high-quality prevention services. However, many communities continue to use prevention strategies that have not been shown to be effective. Studying processes for promoting the dissemination and high-quality implementation of prevention strategies found to be effective in controlled research trials has become an important focus for prevention science. The Communities That Care prevention operating system provides manuals, tools, training, and technical assistance to activate communities to use advances in prevention science to plan and implement community prevention services to reduce adolescent substance use, delinquency, and related health and behavior problems. This paper describes the rationale, aims, intervention, and design of the Community Youth Development Study, a randomized controlled community trial of the Communities That Care system, and investigates the baseline comparability of the 12 intervention and 12 control communities in the study. Results indicate baseline similarity of the intervention and control communities in levels of adolescent drug use and antisocial behavior prior to the Communities That Care intervention. Strengths and limitations of the study's design are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Little is known about men's patterns of substance use around their partner's pregnancy, despite evidence from studies of pregnant women that men's substance use may reduce women's ability to desist from substance use during pregnancy, increase the probability that women will return to use postpartum, and increase the risk of adverse child outcomes. The purpose of this study was to describe the association between pregnancy or partner's pregnancy and month-by-month patterns of binge drinking, daily smoking, and marijuana use among young men and women. METHODS: Data were drawn from the Seattle Social Development Project, which included 412 men and 396 women (age 24 yr) from a community sample of individuals who attended elementary school in the northwestern United States. Event history calendars were used to measure month-by-month patterns of binge drinking, daily smoking, marijuana use, and childbirth over a 3-year period from 1996 to 1999. RESULTS: Births during the calendar period were reported by 131 women and 77 men. Hierarchical generalized linear modeling analyses showed that men's rates of binge drinking and marijuana use were unaffected by their partner's pregnancy. Pregnancy decreased the probability of substance use among women, but use returned to prepregnancy levels within 2 years postpartum. CONCLUSIONS: Men's substance use was not affected by their partner's pregnancy. Pregnancy decreased the probability of substance use among women, but substantial proportions of women users of cigarettes and marijuana used these substances during pregnancy. Many of the women who desisted from substance use while pregnant returned to use after their child was born. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PURPOSE: To examine the convergence in the critiques and recommendations for the future of programs to promote healthy development and prevent problem behaviors among children and adolescents. METHODS: A review of literature captures two streams of thought, those promoting positive youth development approaches to youth programming and those promoting prevention science approaches to youth programming. RESULTS: Results suggest that advocates of positive youth development and prevention science have similar critiques of single-problem-focused prevention programs in the 1980s and early 1990s, and have similar recommendations for the future of youth programming. Further, review of data on youth development suggests that it is important to focus on risk and protection in preventing adolescent problems as well as in promoting positive youth development. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that both youth development and prevention science approaches have grown from similar roots and make similar recommendations for the future of youth programming. Further, data on precursors suggest that focusing on promoting protection and reducing risk is likely to prevent problems and promote positive youth development. Yet advocates of these approaches often are at odds, suggesting that the approaches provide different paradigmatic approaches to youth programming. We conclude that cooperation between these two approaches would further progress in the field of youth programming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PURPOSE: To examine the developmental relationship between adolescent substance use and risky sexual behavior in young adulthood. A gender-balanced, ethnically diverse urban sample of 808 children in Seattle was surveyed at age 10 years in 1985 and followed prospectively to age 21 years in 1996. Semiparametric group-based modeling was used to determine trajectory groups of binge-drinking, cigarette smoking, marijuana use, and the use of other illicit drugs. Negative binomial regressions and logistic regressions were used to examine whether these trajectory groups predicted the number of sex partners and condom use at age 21 years. Specific forms of adolescent substance use significantly predicted risky sexual behavior at age 21 years, after other substance use and early measures of sexual behavior were controlled. Early binge-drinkers had significantly more sex partners than nonbinge-drinkers. Late onset binge-drinkers and marijuana users had significantly more sex partners and were less likely to use condoms consistently than those who did not binge drink or use marijuana. Experimenters in cigarette smoking, who did not escalate smoking, were more likely to use condoms consistently than nonsmokers. In contrast, the use of other illicit drugs in adolescence did not predict risky sexual behavior at age 21 years. The effects of adolescent substance use on risky sexual behavior at age 21 years differed for youths with developmentally different substance use trajectories in this urban sample disproportionately drawn from high crime neighborhoods. To prevent risky sexual behavior among young adults, attention should be paid to binge-drinking and marijuana use during adolescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like their urban counterparts, adolescents from rural areas are at risk for health and behavior problems, including alcohol and other drug use. This study tested the effects on parenting practices of specific sessions of a parent-training intervention, Preparing for the Drug Free Years, designed to prevent adolescent substance abuse and other problem behaviors. Two hundred and nine rural families were randomly assigned to an intervention or a wait-list control condition. Analyses of covariance comparing adjusted posttest scores revealed that parents in the intervention condition reported significant improvements in parenting behaviors targeted by specific intervention sessions when compared with controls. Effects were most pronounced among mothers. No significant effects were found for nontargeted parenting behaviors, and targeted behaviors were most improved among parents attending relevant program sessions. These results strengthen the internal validity of the study and increase the plausibility that reported improvements were due to the intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Many studies of the consequences of binge drinking take a variable-centered approach that may mask developmentally different trajectories. Recent studies have reported qualitatively different binge drinking trajectories in young adulthood. However, analyses of developmental trajectories of binge drinking have not been examined for an important period of drinking development: adolescence. The purpose of this study was to examine young adult outcomes of adolescent binge drinking using an approach that combines person-centered and variable-centered methods. METHODS: Data were from the Seattle Social Development Project, an ethnically diverse, gender balanced sample (n = 808) followed prospectively from age 10 to age 21. Semiparametric group-based modeling was used to determine groups of binge drinking trajectories in adolescence. Logistic regression was used to examine how well the trajectory groups predicted young adult outcomes after demographics, childhood measures, and adolescent drug use were considered. RESULTS: Four distinct trajectories of binge drinking during adolescence were identified: Early Highs, Increasers, Late Onsetters, and Nonbingers. These trajectories significantly predicted positive and negative outcomes in adulthood after controlling for demographic characteristics, early proxy measures of the outcome, and adolescent drug use. CONCLUSIONS: This integrated person- and variable-centered approach provides more information about the effects of specific patterns of binge drinking than studies that employ variable-centered methods alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVES: This study, guided by the social development model, examined the dynamic patterns and predictors of alcohol and marijuana use onset. METHODS: Survival analysis and complementary log-log regression were used to model hazard rates and etiology of initiation with time-varying covariates. The sample was derived from a longitudinal study of 808 youth interviewed annually from 10 to 16 years of age and at 18 years of age. RESULTS: Alcohol initiation rose steeply up to the age of 13 years and then increased more gradually; most participants had initiated by 13 years of age. Marijuana initiation showed a different pattern, with more participants initiating after the age of 13 years. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that: (1) the risk of initiation spans the entire course of adolescent development; (2) young people exposed to others who use substances are at higher risk for early initiation; (3) proactive parents can help delay initiation; and (4) clear family standards and proactive family management are important in delaying alcohol and marijuana use, regardless of how closely bonded a child is to his or her mother. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem behavior theory predicts that adolescent problem behaviors, including illicit drug use, delinquency, juvenile justice involvement, poor school performance, problem drinking, and sexual involvement, are manifestations of a single behavioral syndrome. Some studies have found the theory valid across genders, and this study tested its validity across racial groups. Multiple group confirmatory factor analysis using self-reports of substance use, delinquency, and juvenile justice system involvement tested problem behavior theory for African American and European American adolescents. Results indicate that multiple pathways are necessary to account for the problem behaviors, and they support previous research indicating system response bias in the processing of youths. Intervention and policy implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]