(An item from ISHN Member information service) An article in Issue #6, 2012 of Education & Urban Society adds to our ongoing discussion about school connectedness and substance use. The authors note that "Research has found strong linkages between adolescent substance use and attitudes toward school. Few studies of this relationship, however, consider the different dimensions of students’ school attitudes, separating perceptions of the importance of school from the quality of students’ affective experiences therein". Using a sample of 301 urban adolescents, evenly divided into substance users and nonusers, this study examines the relationships between these two dimensions of school attitudes and substance use. Findings highlight a subset of adolescent substance users who see school as the most important place in which they routinely spend time and who differ significantly from other users, but not from nonusers, in their expressed satisfaction with school. Results also call attention to the ubiquity of urban adolescents’ dissatisfaction with their teachers, showing such dissatisfaction as unrelated to their rates of substance use. In other words, this study may mean that most students don't really care about their teachers, but this does not lead to substance use. It may be more important that students see school as an important step towards their future, so life goals may be more important than the typically vague definitions of school connectedness. Read more.
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(An item from ISHN Member information service) The strong evidence showing that a trusted adult figure in the lives of young people is vitally important has been confiremed, even for young homeless youth attending high school. An article in Issue #5, 2012 of Child & Youth Care Forum describes the factors associated with substance abuse among homeless youth who are continuing to attend high school. The researchers note that " Greater substance use was associated with gang membership, partner abuse and truancy. Lower levels of substance use were associated with higher levels of adult support. Additionally, adult support acted as both a mediator and moderator between the hypothesized risk factors and substance use". Read more.
(An item from ISHN Member information service) With the recent approval in a Washington State, USA vote on decriminalization of marijuana, an article in Issue #6, 2012 of the International Journal of Drug Policy caught our attention. The authors suggest that the value of the average, annual consumption of marijuana in British Columbia, which is next door to Washington State, is $407 million. Read more.
(An item from ISHN Member information service) An article in the November 2012 issue of the Journal of Youth & Adolescence suggests that protective fathers (parents) who closely monitor their daughters relationships with boys will likely result in delayed and less use of alcohol. The authors report that: "for girls, higher levels of parental monitoring lead to fewer other-sex friendships, which then lead to lower levels of subsequent alcohol use. For drug use, the findings provided support for a direct relationship between early adolescent parental monitoring and late adolescent drug use for both boys and girls. Thus, parents seem to have a protective effect on their daughters’ later use of alcohol by limiting inclusion of male friends in their networks. Read more.
Large Scale Study of Comorbity of Substance Abuse and Mental Illness: Don't Clump SAP and MH9/27/2012 (An item from ISHN Member information service) A large scale study of the co-occurrence of substance use disorders and mental health disorders in Australia found that patients with a substance abuse problem were likely to have a MH problem but this correlation was not true in reverse. There was a total of 10,211,596 (4,671,243 males (45.75 per cent) and 5,540,353 females (54.25 per cent)) admissions. Over the six years, between 9.4 per cent and 12.6 per cent of the patients with MHDs were diagnosed as having SUDs. Of the patients diagnosed with SUDs, between 42.5 per cent and 57.4 per cent also had a diagnosis of MHDs. Overall, the comorbidity for both MHDs and SUDs was between 8.4 per cent and 11.3 per cent. The odds ratio for either SUDs or MHDs compared to the general population was between 13.0 to 20.8.The authors suggest that "the findings imply that different efforts towards the prevention, care and management of comorbidity may be warranted." This would likely be true even more for school-based and school-linked programs where the two conditions are much less likely to have reached a clinical stage and where convergence is also less likely. This underlines the case for not merging MH and SAP strategies related to schools while still seeking synergies wherever possible. Read More.. PS A similar analysis of US data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that 10.8% had MH problems, 5.1% had SA problems and only 2.1% has co-ocurring problems
(An item from ISHN Member information service) An article in Issue #3, 2012 of Psychology of Addictive Behaviors introduces a new concept in the prevention kif alcohol abuse in controlled trial for college students. The authors report that The Expectancy Challenge Alcohol Literacy Curriculum (ECALC) is a single session group-delivered program designed to modify alcohol expectancy processes and reduce alcohol use among children and young adults. The objective of this study was to demonstrate the effectiveness of the ECALC in reducing risky alcohol use among heavy drinking college men. Four fraternities at a large state university were randomly assigned to receive either the single session ECALC or a control presentation (2 fraternity houses per condition, n = 250). Alcohol expectancies were assessed before and immediately after program presentation. Results demonstrated significant changes on 5 of the 7 subscales of the Comprehensive Effects of Alcohol Scale (CEOA) among students who received the ECALC when compared with control participants. Read more..
(An item taken from the daily/weekly/monthly ISHN Member information service) A study reported in Issue #4, 2012 of the Journal of Alcohol & Drug Studies examined municipal policies as well as community norms and perceived norms on adolescent alcohol use. Eight policies (conditional use permit, social host ordinance, window/billboard advertising) were rated for each city. Local enforcement was based on grants received from the California Control agency for enforcement of underage drinking laws. Outlet density was based on the number of on- and off-premise outlets per roadway mile. Level of adult alcohol use was ascertained from a survey of 8,553 adults and underage drinking (frequency of past-year alcohol use and heavy drinking) from surveys of 1,312 adolescents in 2009 and 2010. Mediating effects of adolescents' perceived ease of obtaining alcohol, perceived enforcement, and perceived acceptability of use also were examined. None of the eight local alcohol-policy ratings were associated with adolescent drinking. Funding for underage drinking enforcement activities was inversely related to frequency of past-year alcohol use. Outlet density and adult drinking were positively related to both past-year alcohol use and heavy drinking. These relationships were attenuated when controlling for perceived ease of obtaining alcohol, enforcement, and acceptability of alcohol use, providing evidence for mediation. Conclusions: Adolescent alcohol use and heavy drinking appear to be influenced by enforcement of underage drinking laws, alcohol outlet density, and adult alcohol use. These community-level influences may be at least partially mediated through adolescents' perceptions of alcohol availability, acceptability of alcohol use, and perceived likelihood of getting in trouble with local police. The results indicate that school programs should include a focus on normative beliefs about alcohol. Read more..
(An item taken from the daily/weekly/monthly ISHN Member information service) An article in the August 2012 Issue of Harm Reduction is part of a new gtrend in the research to examine indigenous culture and family life as a protective factor in youth risk behaviours. The authors of this study found that the key cultural factors that contributed to whether Pacific youth participants were abstinent or responsible drinkers were: significant experiences within Pacific family environments (e.g. young person directly links their decision about alcohol consumption to a positive or negative role model); awareness of the belief that their actions as children of Pacific parents affects the reputation and standing of their Pacific family and community (e.g. church); awareness of traditional Pacific values of respect, reciprocity and cultural taboos (e.g. male-female socialising); commitment to no-alcohol teachings of church or religious faith; having peer support and experiences that force them to consider negative effects of excessive alcohol consumption; and personal awareness that being part of an (excessive) drinking culture may seriously affect health or impede career aspirations. Read more..
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