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This study (a nationally representative telephone survey; n = 406) examines how attention to accident and crime stories among adolescents predicts judgments regarding alcohol-related risks, and how effects of 2 relevant individual difference variables--sensation seeking and negative 1st- or 2nd-hand personal experiences with alcohol risks--are mediated by attention. Results indicate, after controlling for a variety of demographic and behavioral variables, that attention to accident and crime news predicts adolescent risk judgments and mediates the influence of sensation seeking and negative experience on such risk judgments. Moreover, exposure to national TV news moderates these indirect effects, and sensation seeking and negative experiences also in turn moderate each others' indirect effects. Thus, the best characterization of the complex relation between individual differences, media, and risk judgments is one of moderated mediation. Keywords: news media effects; adolescents; alcohol; risk perception; policy; mediation; exposure; attention

Objective: The present study seeks to establish the extent to which media coverage acknowledges alcohol's contribution to violent crime as well as to motor vehicle injuries and other injury incidents. Method: The study content-analyzes a unique sample, closely approximating national representativeness, of local and national television news, local newspapers, and national magazines randomly sampled during a 2-year period. Results: Alcohol's role in violent crime and, to a lesser extent, in motor vehicle and other injury incidents is under-reported relative to available estimates regarding alcohol-attributable fractions. Relative frequency of various news frames for coverage of alcohol and illegal drugs and differences in coverage of alcohol and illegal drugs as a function of the type of story and news medium are described. Conclusions: The underreporting in the United States of alcohol's contribution to serious and fatal injury from these causes may reduce public perceptions of alcohol-related risks, potentially influencing behavior, including public support of alcohol-control policies. This provides an opportunity for media-advocacy approaches to improve public health content of news coverage., FEW APPROACHES ARE MORE EFFECTIVE in reducing misuse of alcohol and illegal drugs than the passage and enforcement of substance control policies (Toomey and Wagenaar, 2003). In turn, the importance [...]

The separation of strongly basic, moderately basic, weakly basic, strongly acidic, moderately acidic, weakly acidic, and neutral compounds in a single run using capillary electrochromatography (CEC) is presented. This is accomplished using a 3-[[micro]meter] CEC Hypersil C8 capillary with high organic content acetonitrile/phosphate (pH 2.5) mobile phases containing hexylamine. Fifteen basic, acidic, and neutral drugs of forensic interest are resolved using a step gradient. Strong and moderately basic drugs separate before to, apparently by a combination of free zone electrophoresis (CZE) and chromatographic phenomena. Weak bases separate after to, also by a combination of CZE and chromatographic processes. Due to large selectivity differences between CEC and CZE for bases, there is evidence that the stationary phase is playing a significant role in the separation of these solutes. The CEC approach presented offers unique selectivity, expanded peak capacity, and the ability to solubilize both hydrophilic and hydrophobic solutes in an injection solvent that is compatible with the chromatographic system.

Author(s): James R. Ehleringer (corresponding author) [1]; John F. Casale [2]; Michael J. Lott [1]; Valerie L. Ford [2] Here we show that cocaine originating from different geographic regions in [...]

As a preliminary step to designing a health education curriculum for Anglo-American, Hispanic, and Native American children from rural areas of New Mexico, a self-report questionnaire designed to measure tobacco use, exposure and attitudes was administered to 204 boys and girls in fifth-grade classes in six schools. Substantial differences in smoking and smokeless tobacco use were found for children who differed in age, ethnicity, and gender. This suggests a possible need to design tobacco use curricula tailored to the specific groups being taught. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]