Little research has examined mechanisms driving cannabis use disparities among sexual minority (SM; versus heterosexual) young adults (YAs). Participants were US YA women (N = 1345; 24.8% bisexual, 6.1% lesbian) and men (N = 998: 8.9% bisexual, 13.8% gay). Bivariate analyses examined associations between sexual orientation (heterosexual,…

Objective: College students use electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) more often than any other US demographic group. In a novel application of the acquired preparedness model, we examined how proximal (e.g., cognitions) and distal (e.g., dispositional) influences accounted for ENDS use and dependence. Participants: Undergraduates (N = 1075;…

The goal of this study was to examine behavioral norm effects in 2 peer contexts (classroom, school) on adolescent substance use (tobacco, alcohol, cannabis) and aggressive behaviors (bullying, physical fighting). Participants were 5,642 adolescents (M[subscript age] = 14.29 years, SD = 1.26; 49% boys). There were 3 hypotheses. First, behavioral…

The current study examined the application of resilience theory to adolescent gambling using Latent Class Analysis (LCA) to establish subtypes of adolescent gamblers and to explore risk and promotive factors associated with gambling group membership. Participants were a diverse sample of 249 adolescents ages 14 to 18 (30.1 % female, 59.4 % African…

Background: Early substance use co-occurs with youths' self-organization into deviant peer groups in which substance use is central to social interaction. We hypothesized that the social dynamics of deviant peer groups amplify the risk of progressing from early use to later dependence, and that this influence occurs over and above escalations…

A developmental cascade model for adolescent substance use beginning in infancy was examined in a sample of children with alcoholic and nonalcoholic parents. The model examined the role of parents' alcohol diagnoses, depression and antisocial behavior in a cascading process of risk via 3 major hypothesized pathways: first, via parental…

This report finds that adolescent smoking, drinking, misusing prescription drugs and using illegal drugs is, by any measure, a public health problem of epidemic proportion, presenting clear and present danger to millions of America's teenagers and severe and expensive long-range consequences for the entire population. This report is a wake-up call…