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This study tested competing hypotheses related to the false consensus effect and pluralistic ignorance by examining the accuracy and bias of adolescents' perceptions of peer substance use and the effects of their own substance use, gender, and age on perceptions of peer behavior. Two samples (ns = 163 and 2,194) that collected data on peer nominations, perceptions of peer substance use, and self-reports of substance use were used in analyses. Results from both samples provided evidence supporting the false consensus effect, that is, adolescents' reports of their friends' substance use were biased in the direction of their own use. Users and nonusers did not differ in accuracy of perceptions; however, across all substances and samples, they differed significantly in bias. Substance users displayed nearly perfect liberal bias, assuming their friends also used substances. Nonusers displayed an opposite, conservative bias, assuming their friends did not use substances. Gender and age differences in bias also were observed, with older adolescents and girls having more liberal biases than younger adolescents and boys. Results suggest the importance of differentiating the effects of actual and perceived peer substance use.

This study examined parenting variables as protective factors to reduce the influence of school and peer risk factors on adolescents' aggression. Five waves of data spanning 3 years were collected from 5,581 students at 37 schools who began the 6th grade in 2001 or 2002. Class-level and perceived school norms supporting aggression, delinquent peer associations, parental support for fighting and support for nonviolence, and parental involvement were each associated with physical aggression across all waves. Each parenting variable moderated 1 or more risk factors, with the magnitude of many effects varying by gender and decreasing over time. Implications for the role parents may play in reducing the impact of school and peer risk factors for aggression are discussed., (© 2011 The Authors. Child Development © 2011 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.)

Variations in the serotonin transporter gene (5HTTLPR) and biased processing of face-emotion displays both have been implicated in the transmission of depression risk, but little is known about developmental influences on these relationships. Within a community sample of adolescents, we examine whether 5HTTLPR genotype moderates the link between maternal depressive history and errors in face-emotion labeling. When controlling for current levels of depression and anxiety among youth, a two-way interaction between maternal depressive history and 5HTTLPR genotype was detected. Specifically, adolescents whose mothers reported a depressive history and who had a low expressing genotype made more errors in classifying emotional faces when compared with adolescents with an intermediate or high expressing genotype, with or without maternal depression history. These findings highlight the complex manner in which maternal depression and genetic risk may interact to predict individual differences in social information processing., (Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Parents have the potential to protect against adolescent sexual risk, including early sexual behavior, inconsistent condom use, and outcomes such as pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Identification of the specific parenting dimensions associated with sexual risk in adolescence and young adulthood is necessary to inform and focus prevention efforts. The current study examined the relation of proximal (e.g., discussions of sexual costs) and distal (e.g., parental involvement, relationship quality) parenting variables with concurrent and longitudinal adolescent sexual behavior. The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) provided a nationally representative sample with information about the family using adolescent and parent informants. Longitudinal information about sexual risk included adolescent condom use and adolescent sexual initiation, as well as young adult unintended pregnancy, reports of STIs, and biological assay results for three STIs. Higher parent-adolescent relationship quality was associated with lower levels of adolescent unprotected intercourse and intercourse initiation. Better relationship quality was also associated with lower levels of young adult STIs, even when accounting for prior sexual activity. Unexpectedly, more parent reports of communication regarding the risks associated with sexual activity were negatively associated with condom use and greater likelihood of sexual initiation. These results demonstrate that parents play an important role, both positive and negative, in sexual behavior, which extends to young adulthood, and underscores the value of family interventions in sexual risk prevention.

This study examined the direct effects of beliefs about aggression and nonviolence on physical aggression and their role as protective factors that buffer adolescents from key risk factors in the peer, school, and parenting domains. Multilevel analyses were conducted on data from 5,581 adolescents representing two cohorts from 37 schools in four communities collected at the beginning and end of the sixth grade and at the end of the following 2 school years. Individual norms for aggression at Wave 1 moderated relations of delinquent peer associations and parental support for fighting with physical aggression. Self-efficacy for nonviolence at Wave 1 moderated relations of school risk, delinquent peer associations and parental support for fighting with physical aggression. There was clearer evidence for protective effects for self-efficacy for nonviolence for girls than for boys.

Although there has been wide dissemination of research-based psychosocial prevention programs, a similarly strong research base to guide program implementation has been lacking. Program implementation has been particularly difficult for schools, due partly to insufficient understanding of how school ecologies interact with these programs. This study examined the effects of multiple dimensions of school climate on level and rate of change in implementation of a violence prevention intervention across three school years. Using multi-level modeling, the study found that teacher-reported support between staff and among teachers and students predicted higher average levels of implementation. Teacher-reported administrative leadership predicted greater growth in implementation across 3 years. Findings offer implications for an ecological model of program implementation that considers school-level contextual effects on adoption and sustainability of new programs in schools.

This study investigated peer selection and socialization effects on sexual behavior and attitudes using 1,350 15- to 18-year-old students participating in two waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Regarding socialization effects, friends' intercourse without condoms predicted later individual intercourse without condoms positively. Friends' attitudes about the costs of sex predicted later individual attitudes positively and intercourse without condoms negatively. The latter relation was stronger for females than for males. Regarding selection effects, individual attitudes predicted later friends' attitudes positively, but the strength of this effect varied by ethnicity. The results suggest that adolescents socialize friends to have similar sexual attitudes and behavior but tend to select friends based on similar attitudes rather than similar behaviors.

Objective: To assess the long-term effects of an integrative rehabilitation program on the overall quality of life of individuals with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)., Methods: This study utilized a within-subjects, repeated measures cohort design. Twenty-three subjects diagnosed with CFS attended eight sessions of an illness-management group followed by 7 months of goal-oriented, individualized counseling that occurred once weekly for 30 min per session. Quality of life was assessed at five time points (baseline, following the group phase, following the one-on-one phase, and 4 and 12 months following program completion)., Results: A within-subjects repeated measures ANOVA revealed significant increases in overall quality of life for up to 1 year following program completion [F(4, 21)=23.5, P<.001]., Conclusions: Definitive conclusions about program efficacy are limited by design issues. However, findings suggest that the program may have led to improvement in quality of life for up to 1 year following program completion.

This study describes a method for using teacher nominations and ratings to identify socially influential, aggressive middle school students for participation in a targeted violence prevention intervention. The teacher nomination method is compared with peer nominations of aggression and influence to obtain validity evidence. Participants were urban, predominantly African American and Latino sixth-grade students who were involved in a pilot study for a large multi-site violence prevention project. Convergent validity was suggested by the high correlation of teacher ratings of peer influence and peer nominations of social influence. The teacher ratings of influence demonstrated acceptable sensitivity and specificity when predicting peer nominations of influence among the most aggressive children. Results are discussed in terms of the application of teacher nominations and ratings in large trials and full implementation of targeted prevention programs.

Objective: To extend research on the relation of school based contextual norms to current smoking among adolescents by using three analytic techniques to test for contextual effects. It was hypothesised that significant contextual effects would be found in all three models, but that the strength of these effects would vary by the statistical rigor of the model., Design: Three separate analytic approaches were conducted on baseline self report student survey data from a larger study to test the relation between school level perceived peer tobacco use and individual current smoking status., Participants: A representative sample of 5399 sixth through eighth grade students in 14 midwestern middle schools completed the survey. All enrolled sixth through eighth grade students were eligible to participate in the survey. The student participation rate was 91.4% for the entire sample, and did not differ significantly between the schools (range 82-100%)., Main Outcome Measure: Thirty day cigarette smoking prevalence., Results: A level 2 only model based on aggregated individual responses indicated that students in schools with higher average reported peer tobacco use were more likely to be current smokers than students in schools with lower average peer tobacco use. Using a level 1 only model based on individual responses indicated that the effect of school level perceived peer tobacco use on current smoking was significant when individual perceived peer tobacco use was excluded from the model but was non-significant when individual perceived peer tobacco use was added to the model. A multilevel model also indicated that the effect of school level perceived peer tobacco use on current smoking was not significant when individual perceived peer tobacco use was added to the model., Conclusion: The analytic approach used to examine contextual effects using individuals' reports of peer tobacco use norms that were aggregated to obtain a context measure of the school norms may produce statistical artefacts that distort the association of the school context in general, and peer tobacco use norms in particular, with increased risk for current smoking beyond the risk associated with individual factors.

This study examined exposure to community violence and depressive and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms within a non-random sample of low-income, African-American male adolescents. The moderating effect of social support on these relationships was also examined. Seventy-seven African-American adolescent males were recruited from an inner-city, Midwestern high school and surveyed on exposure to violence, depression, post-traumatic stress, and social support. Regression analyses revealed that exposure to violence was significantly associated with both depressive and PTSD symptoms. However, social support was not found to moderate the relationship between exposure to community violence and psychological distress. Implications for intervention are discussed.

This study examined storefront tobacco advertisements in 11 towns in Illinois from 1999 through 2001 to assess possible changes in these types of advertisements since the master tobacco settlement, which banned tobacco advertisements on billboards. Observers assessed the number of merchant- and industry-made tobacco storefront advertisements in Illinois stores and whether these advertisements were either brand- or price-focused. The relationship between the amount of tobacco advertisements and underage tobacco sales to minors was also explored. Findings indicated no significant relationships between tobacco advertisements and underage tobacco sales. However, industry price advertisements decreased over time because of tobacco price increases resulting from the master settlement, whereas industry brand advertisements increased over time, perhaps in an effort by the tobacco industry to retain sales of their products through brand recognition.

This paper explores the impact of school-based heath centers (SBHCs) on the substance use behaviors of low-income, inner-city African American adolescents. Researchers surveyed 2,114 9th- and 11th-grade students from seven inner-city public high schools (three with SBHCs and four without SBHCs). Of the initial 2,114 students, 598 SBHC students and 598 non-SBHC students were successfully matched using ethnicity, grade, gender, and propensity scores. The results of separate grade × gender × SBHC ANOVAs indicated significant grade × SBHC interactions (i.e., such that substance use decreased in SBHC schools while increasing in non-SBHC schools) for cigarettes (p = .05) and marijuana (p< .001), but not for alcohol. These findings show that the SBHC intervention model is promising toward the prevention and reduction of substance use among high-risk African American adolescents and highlight the importance of accessible, holistic, and culturally appropriate health care.

Used an ecological analysis employing multilevel random-effects regression analyses to model Level 1 (individual and social) and Level 2 (environmental) correlates of smoking initiation and continued smoking among 6th-, 7th-, and 8th-grade students. Data from 5,234 youth in 11 Midwestern communities were examined. Results indicate higher levels of retail tobacco availability (RTA) were associated with increased odds that a youth initiated smoking but not continued smoking. Among the Level 1 factors, youth who were older, male, had an adult tobacco user in the home, and had more peers who use tobacco had increased odds of initiating smoking. In contrast, only the presence of an adult tobacco user in the home and the number of peers who use tobacco were associated with increased odds that a youth continued smoking. Examining individual, social, and environmental factors simultaneously provides a clearer and more accurate model of these complex ecological influences.

Researchers face considerable ambiguity and controversy regarding the issue of informed consent. Decisions about consent procedures can affect study participation rates and prevalence estimates among specific populations. Changing from passive to active parental consent procedures was examined in a case study with an anonymous survey of sixth- through eighth-grade students' substance use. Four types of procedures for obtaining parental consent were examined. Results suggest that certain types of consent procedures can yield high levels of participation. This study also demonstrates that low participation rates with some active consent procedures can cause biases in sample characteristics and outcome data.