Causal inference under treatment interference is a challenging but important problem. Past studies usually make strong assumptions on the structure of treatment interference in order to estimate causal treatment effects while accounting for the effect of treatment interference. In this article, we view treatment diffusion as a concrete form of…

This occasional paper presents national demographic subgroup data for the 1975-2022 Monitoring the Future (MTF) national survey results on 8th, 10th, and 12th graders' use of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. The study covers all major classes of illicit and licit psychoactive drugs for an array of population subgroups. The 2020 subgroup data presented…

The present paper assesses the causal effects of education on smoking and self-rated health in Canada. Education is instrumented using the changes in compulsory schooling laws. The sample is restricted to cohorts born between 1946 and 1964. The data are from the Canadian General Social Surveys of 1995 and 2016, allowing to observe the evolution of…

The Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) is an epidemiologic surveillance system that was established by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help monitor the prevalence of behaviors that not only influence youth health but also put youth at risk for the most significant health and social problems that can occur during…

Over the past 20 years, substance use (SU) among adolescents has decreased to the lowest levels in decades. While there has been a decline, these public health successes have not been shared equally. Significant racial and ethnic disparities exist, with Black and Latinx adolescents, as well as adolescents from lower socioeconomic backgrounds,…

Over the last two decades, statistics educators have made important changes to introductory courses. Current guidelines emphasize developing statistical thinking in students and exposing them to the entire investigative process in the context of interesting research questions and real data. As a result, many concepts (confounding, multivariable…

Generating a problem that addresses multiple course learning objectives can be a challenging, but worthwhile exercise for a professor. These types of problems are particularly useful late in a course to help students tie together seemingly disparate concepts to solve an integrated problem that requires them to review concepts mastered throughout…

Assessing societal impacts of research is more difficult than assessing advances in knowledge. Methods to evaluate research impact on policy processes and outcomes are especially underdeveloped, and are needed to optimize the influence of research on policy for addressing complex issues such as chronic diseases. Contribution analysis (CA), a…

Theoretical discussions of evidence-based policy place primary importance on facts and values. However, there are situations in which policy must be made in the absence of facts and values. In this article, one such situation is investigated: the emergence of electronic cigarettes. This article reviews attempts to regulate e-cigarettes in…

Background: Observation Studies, Unmeasured Confounding, and Sensitivity Analysis: An important part of educational research is identifying important, potentially causal, factors that influence children's learning from observational studies. However, it is well-known that discovering such factors from observational studies can be biased due to…

This occasional paper presents subgroup findings from the Monitoring the Future (MTF) study on levels of, and trends in, the use of a number of substances for nationally representative samples of high school graduates ages 19-30, "Monitoring the Future National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975-2018. Volume II, College Students & Adults…

Monitoring the Future (MTF) is a long-term study of substance use and related factors among U.S. adolescents, college students, and adult high school graduates through age 60. It is conducted annually and supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. MTF findings identify emerging substance use problems, track substance use trends, and inform…

This occasional paper presents subgroup findings from the Monitoring the Future (MTF) study on levels of, and trends in, the use of a number of substances for nationally representative samples of high school graduates ages 19-30. The data have been gathered in a series of follow-up surveys of representative subsamples of high school seniors who…

This Summary Report complements the 2019 Montana Youth Risk Behavior Survey Report and contains information regarding risk behaviors of Montana youth in relation to: (1) Unintentional injuries and violence; (2) Tobacco use; (3) Alcohol and other drug use; (4) Sexual behaviors that contribute to unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted…

Montana is proud to have completed over three decades of participation in the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). These results are valuable to educators, school boards, and communities, including parents and students, in understanding the health risks of Montana students, enabling districts to design local health and physical education curriculum…