Drug use among American Indian (AI) youth continues at higher levels than those found among other youth. While the rates are higher, the patterns of increases and decreases over the past 30-year period have been similar, indicating that AI youth are part of the larger adolescent culture. There is a set of secular influences that affect the rates…

The purpose of the current study was to gather data on the attitudes and smoking habits of university students. Data were collected from 250 undergraduates dealing with various aspects of smoking behavior. There were 80 smokers and 170 nonsmokers, including 21 former smokers. In addition to demographic information, participants were assessed with…

Objective: Between February and March 2003, the authors examined college students' willingness to help a smoker quit and assessed demographic and psychosocial characteristics associated with willingness to help. Participants: Survey respondents were 701 college students (474 women, 227 men) aged 18 to 24 years who indicated there was someone close…

Cigarette smoking is concentrated among low-income groups. Consequently, cigarette taxes are considered regressive. However, if poorer individuals are much more price sensitive than richer individuals, then tax increases would reduce smoking much more among the poor and their cigarette tax expenditures as a share of income would rise by much less…

The Internet may be an effective medium for delivering smoking prevention to children. Consider This, an Internet-based program, was hypothesized to reduce expectations concerning smoking and smoking prevalence. Group-randomized pretest-posttest controlled trials were conducted in Australia (n = 2,077) and the United States (n = 1,234) in schools…

The West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) has implemented a program, the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC), to help establish local community learning centers that provide academic enrichment opportunities for children to: (1) meet state and local student standards in core academic subjects; (2) offer students a broad array of…

Network position ("isolate," "member," "liaison"), peer-group substance use, and their interaction were examined as predictors of cigarette, alcohol, and marijuana use in a sample of 163 urban sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. Two measures of peer substance use were compared: one based on social network analysis…

This report summarizes middle and high school results from the 2009 Austin ISD substance use and safety survey.

Schools are overloaded with health promotion programs that, altogether, focus on a broad array of behavioral domains, including substance abuse, sexuality and nutrition. Although the specific content of programs varies according to the domain focus, programs usually address similar concepts: knowledge, attitudinal beliefs, social influences and…

The increase in alcohol and cigarettes use among young people than any population strata is of great concern. The use of alcohol that began in African traditional society as an activity for political, religious, cultural and social relations has evolved over time into a problem of dependence and addiction. Despite concerted prevention efforts,…

Data from three studies were used to investigate whether the establishment of a no-smoking agreement is related to lower odds of adolescent smoking. The prevalence of a no-smoking agreement was first explored by using a national sample involving 4,501 Dutch adolescents. Second, data from a longitudinal study among 595 early adolescents and their…

By drawing on interviews with administrators, faculty and staff at one school in the northeastern United States, this qualitative work considers the ways in which school leaders negotiate, resist or draw upon discourses associated with health, weight, nutrition and fitness to understand and experience their own bodies and interpret their roles and…

This article reports on the prevalence and frequency of use of a set of drug-resistance strategies among a sample of Mexican adolescents. The keepin' it REAL (refuse, explain, avoid, and leave) strategies are part of a model drug-prevention intervention program originally developed by and for youth in the United States. The present study tests the…

Background: Comprehensive, enforced tobacco-free school (TFS) policies lead to significant reductions in youth tobacco use. North Carolina is the first state in the United States to develop a statewide mass media campaign to promote the adoption of and compliance with TFS policies. Methods: In order to guide campaign development, researchers…

Increases in substance use prevalence among girls, as well as a lack of research conducted with urban girls of color, highlight the importance of understanding both predictors and outcomes of substance use abstinence (SUA) within this population. This study addresses gaps in SUA research through a longitudinal investigation conducted with urban…