Objective: The author's purpose in this study was to examine the relation between smoking cessation counseling self-efficacy, knowledge of smoking cessation counseling, motivation to counsel smokers, and barriers to performing smoking cessation counseling, relative to the smoking cessation counseling stage of change. Participants and Methods:…

Background: Children of prisoners are at increased risk of impaired health, behavioural problems and substance misuse; however, the causal pathways to these problems are unclear. Under some circumstances, parental imprisonment may result in improved outcomes for the child. This study investigates the impact of paternal arrest and imprisonment on…

Psychiatric comorbidity likely contributes to driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol among repeat offenders. This study presents one of the first descriptions of the prevalence and comorbidity of psychiatric disorders among repeat DUI offenders in treatment. Participants included all consenting eligible admissions (N = 729) to a 2-week…

The aim of the present study was to make a 16-year follow-up of children of psychosocial risk mothers as concerns emotional/behavioural problems, self-esteem, life events, and academic grades. Forty-three teenagers (index group) and 61 reference teenagers were personally interviewed and asked to answer the Youth Self-report (YSR), the Self-image…

Objective: To study familial and nonfamilial environmental influences on attention problems and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in monozygotic twins discordant and concordant-high and low for these traits. Method: Ninety-five twin pairs from The Netherlands Twin Register were selected. Longitudinal survey data were collected at 1,…

This occasional paper is intended to serve as a supplement to the larger annual volume, "Monitoring the Future National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975-2007: Volume I: Secondary School Students." This supplement contains the graphic presentation of the trends in drug use for various demographic subgroups, namely those defined by gender, college…

Study aim: To examine the prevalence of obesity and its correlation with blood pressure, waist circumference and other health related risk factors (smoking, alcohol consumption, physical inactivity and TV/PC-screen time) in German youths. Material and methods: A cohort of 831 boys and 808 girls, fifth- to tenth-graders from 3 German high schools…

Drawing from the life course perspective, racial disparities in hospitalization are considered in light of a chain of risk. We ask whether race influences admission to, length of stay in, and mortality following hospitalization. Analyses address these questions with data from a national longitudinal sample of adults to assess racial disparities in…

Background: Nearly 10% of students enrolled in US public schools are absent daily. Although previous research has shown associations of school absenteeism with participation in risk behaviors, it is unclear if these associations vary by whether the absence was excused. The purpose of this study was to examine the associations of health risk…

This study investigated associations between maternal prenatal smoking and physical aggression (PA), hyperactivity-impulsivity (HI) and co-occurring PA and HI between ages 17 and 42 months in a population sample of children born in Quebec (Canada) in 1997/1998 (N=1745). Trajectory model estimation showed three distinct developmental patterns for…

Objective: To assess: (1) physicians' knowledge and clinical confidence regarding problematic substance use in pregnancy compared to folic acid, and (2) physicians' desire for education in this area and their preferred learning modalities tools. Design: Self-administered survey. Setting: "Family Medicine Forum 2004" in Toronto, Canada.…

Based on the conceptualization of successful development as the joint maximization of desirable outcomes and minimization of undesirable outcomes (Baltes, 1997), the present study examined connections between adolescent non-involvement in multiple risk behaviors and positive developmental status. Results from a survey of 7290 high school students…

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a fatherhood program on risk behaviors among three groups of young fathers: those still in school (21%), those who had dropped out (52%), and those who graduated from high school or completed a GED (27%). The sample consisted of 198 young fathers who participated in a school-linked…

This article presents findings from a qualitative study of 53 low-income women who were smokers at the onset of pregnancy. Study participants were interviewed during pregnancy to document smoking trajectories and factors contributing to, or undermining, harm reduction and quit attempts. Thirty percent of women quit smoking completely, 43% engaged…

The present study investigated whether adolescent cigarette, alcohol, marijuana, and hard drug use predicts life satisfaction in young adulthood. Survey data were used from a longitudinal cohort of 2376 adolescents at ages 18 and 29, originally recruited from California and Oregon middle schools at age 13. Results of multivariate models indicated…