Increased longevity among people with learning disabilities is accompanied by an increase in morbidity. A possible explanation is that living in the community and a move to greater independence may bring higher health risks through obesity and smoking. The study aimed to see if rates of smoking have increased from earlier published rates and to…

The aim of this investigation is to obtain some baseline self-reported data of the health status and overall quality of life of all residents of the Bella Coola Valley of British Columbia aged 17 years or older, and to measure the impact of a set of designated health determinants on their health and quality of life. In the period from August to…

More Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) are requiring written parental consent in school health intervention trials. Because this requirement presents a formidable challenge in conducting large-scale research, it is vital for investigators to share effective strategies learned from completed trials. Investigators for the recently completed Project…

This pilot study was designed to evaluate the feasibility and the impact of a smoking-cessation program that would meet the specific needs of high school students. Feedback from focus groups conducted with adolescent smokers at a Connecticut high school was used to develop a tailored intervention. Intervention components included commonly used…

This study describes the prevalence and patterns of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure in a large, well-defined cohort of professional, female school employees in California. Design. This is a cross-sectional study based on survey responses from members of the California Teachers Study (CTS) cohort. Subjects. The analyses focused on…

The dependence construct fills an important explanatory role in motivational accounts of smoking and relapse. Frequently used measures of dependence are either atheoretical or grounded in a unidimensional model of physical dependence. This research creates a multidimensional measure of dependence that is based on theoretically grounded motives for…

This study examines the impact of passive and active parental consent procedures on the type of adolescents participating in a school-based survey examining substance use. Schools recruited from a random sample of metropolitan schools were assigned to passive or active parental consent condition. Results showed that participation rates in active…

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a culturally tailored smoking prevention program for Asian American youth (Youth-PASS). A field-tested questionnaire was used to solicit information from participants on knowledge, attitudes and behaviors associated with tobacco and tobacco use, as well as satisfaction with prevention program content and…

This review summarizes end-of-program quit rates from 6 controlled and 10 field-based Not on Tobacco (NOT) evaluations. Approximately 6,130 youth from 5 states and 489 schools participated. Intent-to-treat and compliant quit rates were calculated at 3 months postbaseline (end-of-program). Results from controlled evaluations revealed an aggregate…

Acetylcholine release in sensory neocortex contributes to higher-order sensory function, in part by activating nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs). Molecular studies have revealed a bewildering array of nAChR subtypes and cellular actions; however, there is some consensus emerging about the major nAChR subtypes and their functions in…

Longitudinal analysis by McGee and Williams (2000, "Journal of Adolescence", 23, 569-582, doi: 10.1006/jado.2000.0344) indicates that global self-esteem is not related to substance use in early youth. In the case of tobacco use Glendinning and Inglis (1999, "Journal of Adolescence", 22, 673-682, doi: 10.1006/jado.1999.0262) have looked at the…

Objective:: To help close the gap between health promotion research and practice by using systems thinking. Methods: We review 3 national US tobacco control initiatives and a project (ISIS) that has introduced systems thinking to tobacco control, speculating on ways in which systems thinking may add value to health promotion dissemination and…

Whereas most evaluations of youth empowerment focus on individual outcomes (i.e., were individual youths empowered?), this article focuses on the program as the unit of analysis and seeks to explain how organizational structures, program design features, and processes lead to organizational empowerment (OE). OE is defined as organizational efforts…

In this article the authors look at questions relating to school students' attitudes toward types of deviation such as smoking and the use of alcohol and narcotics. The empirical material is divided into the following topics: how widespread these forms of behavior are; motives that cause adolescents to start smoking, using alcohol, and taking…

The purpose of this study was to increase the knowledge base of adolescent substance use by examining the influences of risk and protective factors for specific substance use, namely alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana. Participants included 271 adolescents and their primary caregivers referred for mental health services across North Carolina. A…