Two public health objectives, one methodological and the other substantive, are realized in the present study. First, average survey ratings are replaced by negated mean cumulative logits (MCLs), which have the advantage of interitem commensuration. Second, these negated MCLs improve the analysis of two Florida tobacco control surveys of community…

Objective: To evaluate the substance use pathways of minority adolescents with a structural equation modeling (SEM) based on the social ecological model. Method: Seven hundred ninety adolescents completed the baseline survey questionnaire for the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention's Mentoring and Family Strengthening Initiative. The exogenous…

This article describes a research program to develop an operant treatment for cocaine addiction in low-income, treatment-resistant methadone patients. The treatment's central feature is an abstinence reinforcement contingency in which patients earn monetary reinforcement for providing cocaine-free urine samples. Success and failure of this…

Young offenders internationally have a higher incidence of mental health problems compared with adolescents in the general population. Mental health issues, particularly comorbid presentations, affect the response to and outcome of rehabilitation and hence recidivism of offending. Most information on the mental health of young offenders has…

The past decades have seen growth in numbers of children raised by grandparents without their parent at home, called skipped-generation grand-families. This mixed methods study examined statements made by 459 grandmothers about core family relationships between grandmother and child, grandmother and parent, and parent and child. Families were…

Many in Indian country have expressed that the trauma from the boarding school experience continues to terrorize the hearts of American Indians. Although much has been written about this history that looms so large in the North American indigenous experience, it remains an obscure topic in mainstream America. Dr. Eulynda J. Toledo, a member of the…

Some extant theory and empirical research suggests that youth problem behaviors, such as substance abuse and delinquency, reflect a single underlying dimension of behavior, whereas others suggest there are several different dimensions. Few studies have examined potential international differences in the structure of problem behavior, where…

The Child Welfare League of America is the nation's oldest and largest membership-based child welfare organization committed to engaging people everywhere in promoting the well-being of children, youth, and their families and protecting every child from harm. By publishing a diverse range of views on a wide array of topics, "Children's Voice"…

Background: Little is known about the characteristics of people with intellectual disabilities (IDs) who misuse substances and how such problems impinge upon their well-being. The aim of this paper is to describe how alcohol and drugs affect the health of people with IDs. Methods: A questionnaire was forwarded to all the community ID teams and…

Alcohol and other drug abuse is a major problem for children and families involved with public child welfare. Substance abuse compromises appropriate parenting practices and increases the risk of child maltreatment. A substantial proportion of substantiated child abuse and neglect reports involve parental substance abuse. Once in the system,…

The developmental trajectories of behavioral control and resiliency from early childhood to adolescence and their effects on early onset of substance use were examined. Behavioral control is the tendency to express or contain one's impulses and behaviors. Resiliency is the ability to adapt flexibly one's characteristic level of control in response…

The possible mechanisms involved in continuities and discontinuities in psychopathology between childhood and adult life are considered in relation to the findings from systematic, prospective, long-term longitudinal studies. Findings on schizophrenia, neurodevelopmental disorders, emotional disturbances, antisocial behaviour and substance abuse…

To examine the peer context of adolescent substance use, social network analysis was used to measure three domains of attributes of peer networks: social embeddedness, social status, and social proximity to substance users. The sample was a panel of 5,104 sixth, seventh, and eighth graders in three public school systems surveyed every 6 months for…

Ninety-three parents and 102 adolescents were referred by juvenile court and treated for substance abuse and a co-morbid diagnosis of either oppositional defiant or conduct disorder using a parent education program over a six-week period. The goals of this study were to assess whether or not active parent involvement and the concurrent treatment…

This study evaluated the interplay of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptom severity, deviant peer group affiliation, oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), and conduct disorder (CD) as risk factors among 142 adolescents with childhood ADHD. Deviant peer affiliation mediated the relation between childhood ADHD symptoms and 6…