This study examines whether health risk behaviour in adolescence can be predicted by self- and by parental reports of psychopathology (externalizing and internalizing symptoms) assessed two and four years earlier. A total sample of 366 fourth graders participated in a longitudinal study with measurements taken in grades 4, 6, and 8. In grades 4…

Evaluation research pertaining to the development of assessment instruments that fully capture the facets of empowerment prevention perspectives among youth are sparse. With funding from the American Legacy Foundation, the University of New Mexico Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, in partnership with the New Mexico State…

Objective: Although current UK policy argues that schools have a key role in raising health standards, emphasis on the core curriculum restricts teachers' opportunities to undertake health promotion activities. The challenge is to design effective health promotion interventions that minimize pressures on teaching staff and curriculum space. Here…

The Monitoring the Future (MTF) study is an ongoing series of national surveys of American adolescents and adults that has provided the nation with a vital window into the important, but largely hidden, problem behaviors of illegal drug use, alcohol use, tobacco use, anabolic steroid use, and psychotherapeutic drug use. For more than a third of a…

This study investigated whether or not high or low risk youths differed on previous items discriminative of problem-prone youth, particularly problem-prone attitudes and preferences, and social and environmental smoking. In addition, the study examined whether high or low use youths differed on items related to a health orientation including…

The "Contemporary Health Series" covers critical health and family life topics in a sequence of modules with two curricular divisions: "Into Adolescence" for middle school teachers and "Entering Adulthood" for high school teachers. This module presents a tobacco "no use" message to students in grades five through eight through a series of eight…

Understanding the misuse of drugs by the elderly has become an area of increasing concern to the drug abuse field. As part of a larger exploration of drug use and health issues among the elderly, a random sample of Houston's noninstitutionalized elderly population (N=1,101), aged 55 and older, were interviewed to determine the extent of their drug…

This document presents an update of a fact book first published by the Public Health Service in 1969. It deals with the medical, social, and economic aspects of cigarette smoking and identifies cigarette smoking as the chief preventable cause of death in the United States. The first section, Smoking, Tobacco & Health, examines trends in cigarette…

A study examined how three major women's magazines handled cigarette advertisements and editorial copy about smoking-related health problems. Examined were issues of "Ms.,""Good Housekeeping," and "Seventeen" magazines from 1972, one year after the ban on television advertisements and the year "Ms." began…

Concentrated cigarette smoke served as an aversive agent in the treatment of 89 habitual cigarette smokers. A factorial design assessed the incremental efficacy of three procedures as a function of client characteristics. Findings are interpreted as support for the principle of tailoring therapeutic procedures to individual differences. (Author)

The efficacy of a multiple treatment smoking cessation program and three maintenance strategies was evaluated. Phases I and II of the study involved 51 subjects who participated in a five-day smoking cessation project consisting of lectures, demonstrations, practice exercises, negative smoking, and the teaching of self-control procedures. At the…

Examples of interesting experiences which have occurred in smoking education programs throughout the country are presented in condensed form to encourage active participation by educators in such programs. These experiences, together with guidelines for creating similar programs, are drawn from a four-year Leadership Development Project on smoking…

The author discusses conceptual differences among nonassertiveness, assertiveness, and aggression and presents suggestions for developing assertion skills in the nonsmoker. (MJB)

Ex-smokers (N = 61) who had stopped smoking as part of a televised "clinic" were assigned to either a tape-reinforcement or nonreinforcement condition and were followed up a month later. A self-regulated reward system can be an extremely cost-effective tool in preventing short-term recidivism among neophyte ex-smokers. (Author)

Questionnaire and telephone interview data were obtained to evaluate an employee incentive program that rewarded nonsmokers with monthly salary bonuses. The program was moderately successful and generally well accepted, although some procedural difficulties occurred. Group-environmental approaches to reduce smoking deserve further attention.…