Background: Not much is known about the academic correlates of tobacco use among students in developing countries. This study investigated associations between multiple forms of tobacco use, psychosocial risk factors, and academic failure among 10- to 16-year-old government school students in Delhi and Chennai, India. Methods: This study was a…

For the four leading causes of death in the United States (heart disease, cancer, stroke and chronic respiratory disease), tobacco use is a common risk factor. Tobacco use is responsible for almost 450,000 deaths per year and impacts the health of every member of our society. Tobacco is a gateway drug for substance abuse. That role is critical to…

Objective: This study aimed to examine the association among adverse childhood experiences, health-risk behaviors, and chronic disease conditions in adult life. Study population: One thousand and sixty-eight (1,068) males and females aged 35 years and older, and residing in selected urban communities in Metro Manila participated in the…

The objectives are to examine the smoking practice and intention among Chinese college students and to explore the association between cigarette smoking and individual and psychosocial factors. Cross-sectional data were collected from 1874 students from 19 college campuses in Jiangsu province, China. Both bivariate and multivariate analyses were…

This article considers previously ignored aspects of verbal communication, humor and laughter, as critical components of social interaction within group discussions. Drawing on data from focus groups, Robinson uses a feminist perspective to explore how mothers living in areas of poverty in Liverpool, UK, use humor and laughter to discuss their…

The instructional approach used in this teaching idea involves high-level cognitive and affective learning rather than passive learning through lecture, which often is the traditional, and ineffective, approach for students being educated about drugs. Objectives: At the conclusion of this drug education teaching strategy, students will be able to:…

Health education can improve the health of the nation. Emphasis is on promoting health, maintaining good health and preventing health problems. A segment of society that tends to ignore their health is college students. They are a large group that makes up 31% of 18-24 year olds in the U.S. (Hingson, et al, 2001). This population is considered to…

Few studies have considered whether psychological determinants of nonsmoking among college students vary by ethnicity. The authors tested the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to explain differences in nonsmoking intentions of 238 African American and 197 Caucasian college students who completed an in-class TPB questionnaire and a smoking…

The theory of planned behavior identifies important proximal determinants of behavior, including attitude toward the behavior, perception of subjective norms exerted by significant others, and perception of perceived control over performance of the behavior. Because research in the planned behavior tradition has focused on desirable target…

A multidimensional item response theory model that accounts for response style factors is presented. The model, a multidimensional extension of Bock's nominal response model, is shown to allow for the study and control of response style effects in ordered rating scale data so as to reduce bias in measurement of the intended trait. In the current…

Acculturation discrepancy theory predicts that conflicting cultural preferences between adolescents and their parents will increase the adolescents' risk for behavior problems such as substance use. This study evaluated this hypothesis in a sample of 1683 Hispanic students in Southern California who completed surveys in 9th and 10th grade.…

Background: Studies concerning whether exposure to low levels of maternal alcohol consumption during fetal development is related to child inattention and hyperactivity symptoms have shown conflicting results. We examine the contribution of covariates related to social adversity to resolve some inconsistencies in the extant research by conducting…

Purpose: A secondary analysis of 2000 and 2004 Indiana Youth Tobacco Survey (IYTS) data was conducted to investigate salient environmental and perceptual correlates of adolescents' current and established smoking while controlling for demographic variables such as gender, grade, and race/ethnicity and to compare the pattern of significant…

This updated report from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA's) Office of Applied Studies presents the first information from the 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) and is the primary source of information on the prevalence, patterns, and consequences of alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drug use and…

This randomized experiment evaluates the attitudes and behavioral intentions of 458 undergraduate college students about intervening with the intent of preventing an illegal retail purchase of tobacco products by a minor after exposure to a factorial combination of three pieces of information. MANOVA results show that none of the treatment…