A survey of permanent residents of Canada over 50 years of age (n=5,102) regarding the effect of smoking, alcohol consumption, obesity, and physical activity found the following: (1) smoking is associated with negative outcomes; (2) there is little evidence of adverse effects for alcohol consumption; (3) physical activity is positive; and (4) body…

Assessed six categories of college students' health risk behaviors. Student survey data indicated that respondents were engaging in risk behaviors that could impact educational achievement and lead to serious consequences. Youth tended to enter college with established patterns of risk. Most regularly consumed large amounts of alcohol. Differences…

Investigated the impact of a tobacco citation and subsequent court appearance on teens who possessed tobacco, examining offenders' attitudes and behaviors following citation and court appearance. Surveys and interviews indicated that being ticketed and appearing in teen tobacco court had significant, positive, short-term impacts on large numbers…

Evaluated Not On Tobacco, a gender-sensitive, smoking cessation program for adolescents, comparing experimental group and brief intervention (BI) group students. Overall, Not On Tobacco females were four times more likely to quit than BI females. Approximately 84 percent of experimental group teens quit or reduced smoking, compared to 55 percent…

Among 137 rural Hispanic Americans surveyed in central California--over half having limited English proficiency and less than a 7th-grade education--almost all knew that smoking causes lung cancer and osteoporosis, but less than half knew of smoking's other health risks. Current smokers were most likely to underestimate smoking risks. (Contains 26…

Evidence on the effectiveness of school-based smoking restrictions on reducing pupil smoking rates is mixed. So far, the effect of such policies has only been considered using quantitative methods and "level of enforcement" has primarily been measured according to data collected from staff. This qualitative study is based on data collected during…

Suicide represents the second-leading cause of death among American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth aged 15-24 years. Data from the 2001 Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Youth Risk Behavior Survey were used to examine the association between attempted suicide among high school students and unintentional injury and violence behaviors, sexual risk…

In the wake of significant budget shortfalls, 37 states and the District of Columbia have recently increased cigarette excise taxes to boost revenues. This study examines the impact of increasing the price of cigarettes, which will occur as a consequence of cigarette excise tax increases, and implementing restrictions on smoking in private…

Nationwide efforts to protect the public against the health effects of secondhand smoke have prompted college and university administrators to adopt more restrictive smoking policies. Some campus officials are concerned that new policies will lead to student backlash, increased staff workloads, and an increased economic burden. To understand the…

In response to aggressive marketing of tobacco to college students, Florida's legislature allocated multi-settlement agreement dollars to fund tobacco prevention programming at state institutions of higher learning. The Student Tobacco Reform Initiative: Knowledge for Eternity (STRIKE) was one such program. Its purpose was to increase awareness…

Little is known of smoking trajectories or of the correlates of smoking trajectories among African American youth. Ninth-grade African American adolescents (n = 566) were interviewed in Year 1 and then were subsequently interviewed annually for 3 additional years. Five trajectories of cigarette smokers were identified: abstainers,…

The problems associated with the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs (ATOD) extract a significant health, social, and economic toll on American society. While the field of substance abuse prevention has made great strides during the past decade, two major challenges remain. First, the field has been disorganized and fragmented with respect to…

Prior work indicates that substance use is related to adolescent marriage. We describe two different processes that may account for this relationship and hypothesize patterns of association that would be consistent or inconsistent with each. Using data from a study that followed west coast youth from 7th grade to young adulthood N3,324, we…

Objective: To examine predicted relationships among transtheoretical model of change measures in a sample of 211 low-income, African American hospitalized smokers. Methods: We used discriminant analysis to examine differences in decisional balance and self-efficacy across stages of change for quitting. Results: Differences in decisional balance…

Because of high levels of risk behavior, adjudicated adolescents are at high risk for negative health outcomes such as nicotine and drug addiction and sexually transmitted diseases. The goal of this article is to examine relationships between future orientation and impulsive-sensation-seeking personality constructs to risk behaviors among 300…