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Abstract: This study examined the effects of smoking policy on 4,807 adolescents in 23 schools over a two-county area in California. Amounts and prevalence rates of adolescent smoking were measured with a self-report survey and a biochemical measure; school smoking policy was measured with two independent surveys of school staff. Policy effects were evaluated with multiple and logistic regression analyses controlling for school-level socioeconomic status and environmental support for teaching and administration. Of the 23 schools, 100 percent had a formal written and regularly enforced policy component restricting student smoking on school grounds, 94 percent restricted students leaving school grounds, 65 percent restricted smoking near school grounds, and 57 percent had a smoking prevention education plan. Schools with policies having all four versus < four components, high versus low emphasis on prevention, and a low versus high emphasis on cessation reported lower amounts of smoking in the last week and in the last 24 hours. Punitive consequences of policy violation bad no effect. Results were compared to school staff observations of adolescent smoking, and school archival records of student smoking violations in the last year. Results suggest that school smoking policy is associated with decreased amounts of smoking in adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, applied social researchers have shown an increased interest using focus groups as a method of generating ideas and solutions pertaining to various social problems. However, caution in the use of this methodology is warranted because focus groups may induce certain group effects which might bias responses. The present study investigated whether an extended focus group procedure resulted in a polarization of attitudes (a group influence bias effect) or a greater pool of ideas than those generated by its members at pretest (brainstorming, a favorable group effect). Southern California and Illinois high school students involved in a total of 31 focus groups were administered pretest and posttest questionnaires. These groups addressed the perceived utility of self-generated strategies designed to recruit adolescent tobacco users into a high school based tobacco use cessation clinic Support was obtained for a group polarization effect, which was replicated across grades, regions, tobacco use status, and specific strategy type. Specifically, after participating in a focus group, the students rated all self-generated cessation clinic recruitment strategies as being more likely to be successful. Moreover, they reported that it was more likely that these strategies would lead them to join a program themselves, if they were tobacco users. However, little support was obtained for the brainstorming effect. In the present context, focus groups do not appear to elicit reporting of new types of strategies but do instill more favorable attitudes regarding self-generated solutions to a problem. Practical implications of these data are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preventing the illicit use of prescription stimulants, a particularly high-risk form of substance use, requires approaches that utilize theory-guided research. We examined this behavior within the context of a random sample of 554 undergraduate students attending a university in northern California. Approximately 17% of students self-reported engaging in this behavior during college; frequency of misuse per academic term ranged from less than once to 40 or more times. Although most misusers reported oral ingestion, a small proportion reported snorting and smoking the drug. The majority of misusers reported receiving the drug at no cost, and the primary source of the drug was friends. Misusers were motivated by both academic (e.g., to improve focus) and non-academic (e.g., to experiment) reasons. Our thematic analyses of an open-end question revealed that students abstaining from illicit use of prescription stimulants did so primarily for reasons related to health risks, ethics, and adherence regulations. Results from adjusted logistic regression analyses showed that correlates of the behavior were intrapersonal, interpersonal, and environmental in nature. We conclude that characteristics of misuse are a cause for concern, and correlates of the behavior are multifaceted. These findings, in addition to insights provided by students who choose not to engage in this behavior, suggest that a number of prevention approaches are plausible, such as a social norms campaign that simultaneously corrects exaggerated beliefs about prevalence while also illustrating why abstainers, in their own words, choose to abstain.

Objective: To test a theory-driven model of health behavior to predict the illicit use of prescription stimulants (IUPS) among college students., Participants: A probability sample of 554 students from one university located in California (response rate=90.52%)., Methods: Students completed a paper-based survey developed with guidance from the Theory of Triadic Influence. We first assessed normality of measures and checked for multicollinearity. A single structural equation model of frequency of IUPS in college was then tested using constructs from the theory's three streams of influence (i.e., intrapersonal, social situation/context, and sociocultural environment) and four levels of causation (i.e., ultimate causes, distal influences, proximal predictors, and immediate precursors)., Results: Approximately 18% of students reported engaging in IUPS during college, with frequency of use ranging from never to 40 or more times per academic term. The model tested had strong fit and the majority of paths specified within and across streams were significant at the p<0.01 level. Additionally, 46% of the variance in IUPS frequency was explained by the tested model., Conclusions: Results suggest the utility of the TTI as an integrative model of health behavior, specifically in predicting IUPS, and provide insight on the need for multifaceted prevention and intervention efforts., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)