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Peer victimization is common and linked to maladjustment. Prior research has typically identified four peer victimization subgroups: aggressors, victims, aggressive‐victims, and uninvolved. However, findings related to sex and racial‐ethnic differences in subgroup membership have been mixed. Using data collected in September of 2002 and 2003, this study conducted confirmatory latent class analysis of a racially‐ethnically diverse sample of 5415 sixth graders (49% boys; 50.6% Black; 20.9% Hispanic) representing two cohorts from 37 schools in four U.S. communities to replicate the four subgroups and evaluate measurement invariance of latent class indicators across cohort, sex, race‐ethnicity, and study site. Results replicated the four‐class solution and illustrated that sociodemographic differences in subgroup membership were less evident after accounting for differential item functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most applications of person-centered methodologies have relied on data-driven approaches to class enumeration. As person-centered analyses grow in popularity within organizational research, confirmatory approaches may be sought to provide more stringent theoretical tests and to formalize replication efforts. Confirmatory latent class analysis (LCA) is achieved through placement of modeling constraints, yet there is variation in the types of potential constraints and a lack of standardization in evaluating model fit in published work. This article provides a comprehensive framework for operationalizing model constraints and demonstrates confirmatory LCA via two illustrations: (a) a dual sample approach (n = 1,366 and n = 1,367 in exploratory and validation samples, respectively) and (b) confirmatory testing of a hypothesized latent class structure (n = 1,483). We depict operationalization of threshold boundary and/or equality constraints under both illustrations to generate a confirmatory latent class structure, and explain methods of model evaluation and comparison to alternative models. The confirmatory model was well supported under the dual sample approach, and partially supported under the hypothesis-driven approach. We discuss decision making at various points of model estimation and end with future methodological developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examines the interaction between a polygenic score and an elementary school-based universal preventive intervention trial and its effects on a discrete-time survival analysis of time to first smoking marijuana. Research has suggested that initiation of substances is both genetically and environmentally driven (Rhee et al., Archives of general psychiatry 60:1256-1264, 2003; Verweij et al., Addiction 105:417-430, 2010). A previous work has found a significant interaction between the polygenic score and the same elementary school-based intervention with tobacco smoking (Musci et al., in press). The polygenic score reflects the contribution of multiple genes and has been shown in prior research to be predictive of smoking cessation, tobacco use, and marijuana use (Uhl et al., Molecular Psychiatry 19:50-54, 2014). Using data from a longitudinal preventive intervention study (N = 678), we examined age of first marijuana use from sixth grade to age 18. Genetic data were collected during emerging adulthood and were genotyped using the Affymetrix 6.0 microarray (N = 545). The polygenic score was computed using these data. Discrete-time survival analysis was employed to test for intervention main and interaction effects with the polygenic score. We found main effect of the polygenic score approaching significance, with the participants with higher polygenic scores reporting their first smoking marijuana at an age significantly later than controls (p = .050). We also found a significant intervention × polygenic score interaction effect at p = .003, with participants at the higher end of the polygenic score benefiting the most from the intervention in terms of delayed age of first use. These results suggest that genetics may play an important role in the age of first use of marijuana and that differences in genetics may account for the differential effectiveness of classroom-based interventions in delaying substance use experimentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We compared suicide attempts, depressed mood, and drug use of 1,710 Dominican public high school students in New York City (NYC) and 9,573 in the Dominican Republic (DR) in 2009. Compared to DR Dominicans, NYC Dominicans were more likely to have reported lifetime marijuana use (27.6% vs. 1.5%), lifetime inhalant use (11.0% vs. 7.6%), lifetime other drug use (9.9% vs. 3.0%), depressed mood (31.3% vs. 27.2%), and suicide attempt (13.8% vs. 8.8%). The results of this study supported the hypothesis that substantial increases in illicit drug use, especially cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, and methamphetamines, among NYC Dominican youth account for their increased risk for suicide attempts compared to their DR Dominican counterparts. It also identified suicide attempts as a public health problem among NYC Dominicans, the largest NYC Latino immigrant population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internalizing symptoms during adolescence and beyond is a major public health concern, particularly because severe symptoms can lead to the diagnosis of a number of serious psychiatric conditions. This study utilizes a unique sample with a complex statistical method in order to explore Gene × Environment interactions found in internalizing symptoms during adolescence. Data for this study were drawn from a longitudinal prevention intervention study (n = 798) of Baltimore city school children. Internalizing symptom data were collected using self-report and blood or saliva samples genotyped using Affymetrix 6.0 microarrays. A major depression polygenic score was created for each individual using information from the major depressive disorder Psychiatric Genetics Consortium and used as a predictor in a latent trait–state–occasion model. The major depressive disorder polygenic score was a significant predictor of the stable latent trait variable, which captures time-independent phenotypic variability. In addition, an early childhood stressor of death or divorce was a significant predictor of occasion-specific variables. A Gene × Environment interaction was not a significant predictor of the latent trait or occasion variables. These findings support the importance of genetics on the stable latent trait portion of internalizing symptoms across adolescence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Quantitative research on parental/family disapproval and rejection of sexual/gender minority persons has often measured family rejection as one binary/continuous variable, or using several variables representing specific behaviors or dimensions of behaviors. Absent from this literature is analysis using a person-oriented approach, examining heterogeneity across individuals in the types of family treatment experience. Using data from 2,664 adult sexual minority women and transmen in Vietnam, latent class analysis was conducted on 19 items representing negative family behaviors. The six-class solution best fit the data, including one non-negative class (peace, 36.7% of the sample) and five negative classes (pressure, 34.0%;aggressive to respondent and girlfriend, 10.3%;aggressive to respondent, 8.1%;severe, 6.0%; andextreme, 4.7%). Class membership was regressed on individual, family, and contextual variables. Overall, younger age, transman identity, religious affiliation, and parent awareness predicted being in worse family treatment classes. Further research is needed to separate cohort and age effects and to examine developmental trajectories of family behavior. Findings suggested that it may be general conservativeness rather than a specific religious doctrine that predicts negative family treatment and revealed that nonparent family members’ role in family response to sexual/gender nonconformity may be significant. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]