The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify salient beliefs about disclosing drug use to healthcare providers among a convenience sample of adults who use drugs in the United States. This study differs from previous research by using the Reasoned Action Approach as the theoretical framework which allows the intention to disclose to be explored. A sample of 5 adults were recruited from Bluelight.org, with ages above 35 years for all participants. Primary drugs differed among the sample with two participants using primarily opioids, heroin as the primary drug for one participant, and stimulants as the primary drug for two participants. Data was collected using an open-ended web survey. Content analysis was performed on the data using a pragmatic worldview. Data was analyzed using the Reasoned Action Approach concepts relating to behavioral beliefs, normative beliefs, and control beliefs. Among the sample, advantages to disclosing drug use included improved healthcare and finding help while disadvantages primarily included discrimination and stigmatization. When asked about normative referents that would encourage disclosure, family and healthcare providers were provided most. However, those who would discourage disclosure were people who know the consequence, pain patients, and support groups. Stigma and discrimination appeared again as response to a question about groups or people who would be least likely to disclose. When asked about factors that would increase the likelihood of disclosure, being listened to without consequences and a variety of healthcare provider qualities (e.g., caring, trustworthy, etc.) were provided most often. Factors that would decrease the likelihood of disclosure were less conclusive and diminished health/healthcare was the only salient belief identified. The findings of this study align with previous literature on the consequences of stigma and discrimination while also providing a base of literature for future research on the topic using the Reasoned Action Approach.

Book Summary: Break the Cycle of Children’s Environmental Health Disparities (or simply, Break the Cycle) is an annual collaborative interdisciplinary research and training program involving university students in academic tracks that focus on the impact of adverse social, economic, and environmental factors on children’s health, development, and education. The target populations are communities where environmental hazards are related to circumstances of social and economic disadvantage. Each student develops a project that focuses on preventing or reducing adverse environmental factors to benefit the children who live in these communities. At the end of the project, the students present their studies and findings at a national conference and write papers which are then published. This book is the result of the 12th annual Break the Cycle program. The projects cover a range of factors that operate over a period of time and have an influence on individual, community, and social perspectives. Most importantly, they inform us about children’s environmental health disparities and propose solutions to reduce health disparities in order to promote health equity for all children.

The purpose of this paper was to examine how people experience the practice of Cannabis in daily life. The study was based on interviews with five individuals who have experience with cannabis use. They do not represent a bigger population only themselves. We chose these particular individuals because all of them began using cannabis at a young age- everyone before they were twenty. But they have been using cannabis because of different reasons. The results of the interviews were analyzed with the thesis of Howard Becker and the new developed thesis of Hallstone about social control. The thesis explains the pattern of becoming a drug addict and what the steps are. The final results of this study contain answers about how much cannabis they have been using, how often, with whom and with what purpose. We compared these answers to the patterns to see if there was any truth to them and then we explained the function the drug has in their lives. For further explaining we used former researches about cannabis use in different areas of life. In the discussion we try to understand what these answers mean, what the thought behind cannabis use is and if these people really have the control over it.

Alcohol abuse and illicit drug use in the United States are major concerns of American households, as well as of the White House. This dissertation research evaluates alcohol abuse and controlled drug use by American workers in the context of various individual, organizational, and occupational settings. It tests the importation and organizational stress perspectives, the occupation subculture perspective, and the lifecycle wage compensation theory. The analyses are developed utilizing (1) logistic regression, (2) generalized linear modeling, including Poisson regression and negative binomial regression, (3) weighted modeling estimation, taking the clustering effects of complex survey design into account, and (4) the hierarchical growth curve modeling of intra- and inter-individual differences. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979—1993, the 1997 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, and the 1998 National Occupational Information Network (O*NET 98), I find that employees' drinking and controlled drug use behavior are predicted by a number of individual background characteristics, as well as workplace-environment variables. I also find that occupational characteristics influence alcohol and drug using behaviors of workers, although in more complex ways than suggested by much of the organizational stress and occupational subculture literature. It appears that occupations with higher levels of steady employment prospects exert the most significant negative effect on employees' alcohol use, marijuana use, and any illicit drug use, regardless of an employee's age, gender, race, education, and income. It also appears that the etiology of cocaine use is different from that of either alcohol use or other drugs, such as marijuana. Finally, I find that when education and years employed are held constant, employees' current marijuana use is negatively associated with their earnings. No evidence has been found that current alcohol use, current marijuana use, or lifetime cocaine use predicts future growth rates on earnings. Having examined the factors of occupational, organizational, and individual social/demographic characteristics as they influence patterns of alcohol abuse and controlled drug use in multiple large representative samples of the labor force, discussions on the research findings, the implications, the limitations, and the future study directions are presented. / Ph. D.

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