The level of accurate health knowledge that young adult women possess regarding selected information dealing with nutrition; disease; and over-the-counter, prescription, and social drugs is discussed. Sections include the introduction, methods, results, discussion, and implications for biology teachers. (KR)

The relationship between substance use (tobacco, marijuana, and alcohol) and conduct problems and delinquency was investigated for 2,573 boys in grades one, four, and seven in Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania). Substance use is an indicator of boys who exhibit problem behaviors. Results are related to a developmental conceptualization of these problems.…

A survey of 168 American Indian (primarily Navajo) high school seniors in New Mexico examined experiences with alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drugs; sources of information about these substances; and student attitudes, perceptions of risk, perceptions of parent attitudes, and reasons for not using. Implications for drug education are discussed. (SV)

Sixth graders completed a survey investigating the relationship of school and home self-esteem to history of substance use, membership in alternative education programs, gender, and race. Both school and home self-esteem inversely related to tobacco, alcohol, and drug use. Students in nonmainstream programs had significantly lower home and school…

Presents proceedings of the American Association of Dental Schools' International Women's Leadership Conference. Addresses, panel presentations, and general-sessions topics included leadership training and promotion for women in dental education, women's health issues and research, the glass ceiling, infrastructures for research and training,…

Studies on race-based admissions, sports and sex, and religion and drugs suggest that: affirmative action policies were successful regarding college admissions; boys who play sports are more likely to be sexually active than their peers, with the opposite true for girls; and religion is a major factor in whether teens use cigarettes, alcohol, and…

Summarizes U.S. data from the 1997-98 World Health Organization Health Behavior in School-Aged Children Study, which examined the attitudes and experiences of children age 11, 13, and 15 years on various health behavior and lifestyle issues. Results are presented on: health and well-being; family relationships; school relationships; school…

Investigated the prevalence of health risk behaviors among diverse middle school students. Data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey-Middle School indicated that respondents engaged in multiple health risk behaviors, with 24.4 percent seriously considering suicide, 53.5 percent having been in a physical fight, 50.2 percent ever drinking, 17.9…

Examines self-consistency and self-enhancement motivation roles in adolescent cigarette smoking. Respondents were 1,971 fifth through eighth graders. They were asked to provide information about the number of cigarettes they had smoked in their lifetime and to rate themselves and most smokers on nine dimensions tapping coolness, sociability, and…

An Icelandic study examined the relation between parenting style and adolescent substance use at age 14 and longitudinally from 14 to 17 years. Findings indicated that adolescents who characterized their parents as authoritative were more protected against substance use than adolescents who perceived their parents as neglectful, both concurrently…

This study examines the association between acculturation and subsequent binge drinking among Asian American adolescents and investigates the mediating effect of friends' alcohol and tobacco use. Data from a nationally representative sample of 714 Asian American adolescents in grades 7 to 12 were analyzed. There was no gender difference in terms…

Despite evidence that school factors are associated with differences in various types of student behavior, little research has explored the predictive utility of school factors for school-level substance offense rates. Using data from the State of Florida Department of Education and the Census, we explore the associations between school climate…

The authors used a standardized questionnaire to survey 201 international and 193 German students at the University of Bielefeld, Germany, to determine differences in health practices between the 2 groups and to identify targets for health-promoting interventions. Multivariate logistic regression models revealed that long-term female international…

This paper jointly examines the importance of parental influences, prices, and tobacco control policies on the smoking behavior of youths. Data are drawn from the Audits & Surveys (A&S) 1996 survey of high school students across the United States from "The Study of Smoking and Tobacco Use Among Young People" to examine the impact…

The present study examines predictors of heavy drinking frequency and drinking-related problems among more than 600 college students. Controlling for high school drinking frequency, results of multiple regression analyses showed that more frequent heavy drinking was predicted by being male and risk factors of more frequent marijuana and tobacco…