Background. Cross-sectional findings in community surveys of adults suggest that adolescent anxiety disorders are strong predictors of the subsequent onset of alcohol use, abuse and dependence. However, prospective data that follow a sample of adolescents into adulthood are needed to confirm these associations. Method. Baseline and 4-year follow-up data from the EDSP-Study, a prospective community survey of 3021 (2548 at follow-up) adolescents and young adults aged 14 to 24 years at baseline carried out in Munich, were used. DSM-IV anxiety disorders, alcohol use and alcohol use disorders were assessed with the Munich-Composite-International-Diagnostic-Interview (M-CIDI). Multiple logistic regression analysis, controlling for age, gender, other mental disorders, substance use disorders and antisocial behaviour was used to study the associations of baseline anxiety disorders with the subsequent onset and course of alcohol use and alcohol disorders. Results. Baseline social phobia significantly predicts the onsets of regular use and hazardous use and the persistence of dependence. Panic attacks significantly predict the onsets of hazardous use and abuse as well as the persistence of combined abuse/dependence. Panic disorder significantly predicts the persistence of combined abuse/dependence. Other anxiety disorders do not significantly predict any of the outcomes. Conclusions. Panic and social phobia are predictors of subsequent alcohol problems among adolescents and young adults. Further studies are needed to investigate the underlying mechanisms and the potential value of targeted early treatment of primary panic and social phobia to prevent secondary alcohol use disorders.

In 2005, suicide was the third leading cause of death among youth 10-24 years of age in the U.S. —accounting for 4,482 deaths. Youth suicide is an important public health problem in the U.S. and research focusing specifically on gender differences is needed and warranted since recent research shows that rates of suicide attempts have increased specifically among young girls. Analyses of the recently released 2007 YRBS data (n=14,041; girls=7,036; boys=6,992) of high school students in 9-12th grades, show that 6.9% of adolescents attempted suicide (9.3% of girls versus 4.6% of boys) and 14.5% seriously considered a suicide attempt (18.7% of girls versus 10.3% of boys). Girls are 2.89 (95% CI: 2.31-3.61) times more likely than boys to report attempting suicide in the past 12 months. Moreover, girls who reported attempting suicide were significantly more likely to also report other risk factors such as depression (OR= 5.74), weapon carrying (OR= 1.48), experiencing intimate partner violence (OR=1.60), being forced to have sexual intercourse (1.72), huffing glue (OR=2.04), and being a minority (OR 1.65). However, boys who reported attempting suicide were significantly more likely to also report weapon carrying (OR=1.66), being forced to have sexual intercourse (OR=2.60), huffing glue (OR=1.63), participating in sports (OR=1.52), depression (OR=10.96), hard drug use (OR=2.18), and being a minority (OR=1.93). Furthermore, analyses of 1991 – 2007 YRBS data revealed that these gender specific risks have remained fairly constant over time. These findings will help guide prevention and intervention strategies to prevent suicide and suicidal behaviors among both girls and boys.

This research aims to determine teacher perceptions on alcohol- and drug use among students, as well as how they implement the municipality framework against alcohol and drugs. The research was carried out in a midsized town in the centre of Sweden. It is characterized by an inductive approach and was performed through a qualitative method. Results were analyzed from a hermeneutic approach, and theories used are system theory, salutogenic approach and Mead’s symbolic interaction theory. One outcome from this research was the fact that teachers generally implement their work out of the municipality framework, even though teachers express their lack of knowledge about the content of the framework. Furthermore the research revealed that many teachers thought the relationship towards the students had a big impact on how they could manage to help them, that it was important that students felt that the teachers were trustworthy. The conclusion of this research is that there is a great variety regarding the commitment and knowledge among teachers when it comes to student usage of alcohol and drugs, even though teachers were given a common framework.

Sensation seeking is a personality characteristic associated with problematic alcohol use and positive alcohol expectancies, but little research has examined the relationship between sensation seeking and the acquisition of alcohol expectancy information. In a recent study (Steinberg, 2003), sensation seeking was associated with how quickly and accurately college-aged students were able to learn alcohol-expectancy word pairs in a paired associate learning task. In this age group, however, the individuals had fully developed alcohol expectancies that may have influenced their rates of learning. The current study sought to minimize the influence of previously held alcohol expectancies by exploring this relationship in children when the development of alcohol expectancies is just beginning. The participants in this study were fifth grade students. A series of regressions examined the relationship between sensation seeking, alcohol expectancies, current and predicted future drinking with the acquisition of alcohol and expectancy word pairs in a paired associate learning task. Although no statistically significant relationships were found, children with higher drinking frequency and males with higher Thrill and Adventure Seeking (TAS) demonstrated a minor advantage in their ability to match alcohol and expectancy words in cued-recall trials. Although the results of this study are inconclusive, they suggest that sensation seeking may play a role in the acquisition of alcohol expectancies. Future research with refined word pairs and a larger sample size is necessary to further clarify these trends.

Substance use among high school students has become an increased concern for administrators, parents, and community members. Previous research has demonstrated relationships between adolescent substance use and numerous negative outcomes. This study investigated the relationship between athletic participation and substance use using self-report data from a sample of 139 high school students. Specifically, the current study examined the relationship between frequency and setting of participation in athletic activities (e.g., football, baseball, soccer) and multiple types of substance use (e.g., alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, other illicit drugs) in adolescents. The results of this study indicate that nonathletes reported significantly more marijuana use than athletes when gender, ethnicity, SES, and grade were controlled for in the analyses. Additionally, there was a significant relationship between students‟ grade and substance use. Specifically, 12 th grade students reported significantly higher rates of alcohol use than 10th grade students. Implications for school psychologists and directions for future research are presented.

Research suggests that more than ten percent of older adults experience behavioral health problems (including mental health problems and/or substance abuse). However, very few actually receive care from a behavioral health care provider or even a primary care provider. One major barrier to accessing and receiving care is the feeling of perceived stigma commonly associated with behavioral health problems. The present study examined the relationships among attitudinal variables, feelings of stigma, and behavioral health outcomes over time in an elderly population with the secondary analysis of data collected for a previously implemented research study, the Primary Care Research in Substance Abuse and Mental Health for Elderly (PRISM-E) study. The PRISM-E research project was a multisite, randomized, comparative trial examining two models of care for persons aged 65 and older with symptoms of depression, anxiety, and/or at-risk drinking. A total of 2,022 participants over the age of 65 were included in the database. Over half of the participants indicated that they had some feelings of stigma associated with mental health and substance abuse issues. An examination of the measure used in the PRISM-E study to measure stigma revealed the presence of two factors, or components, of stigma that we labeled Perceived Stigma and Comfort Level. Statistical analyses of the data demonstrated that feelings of stigma are not constant and can indeed change over time. However, in this sample, perceived stigma was not related to behavioral health outcomes, such as a reduction in symptoms of depression, anxiety, and/or at-risk drinking. Limitations of this study include the possibility that the sample may be biased due to the fact that all participants were under the care of a primary care provider and all agreed to enter treatment for their behavioral health problem. Implications of the findings are that it is possible to influence feelings of stigma and previous research has demonstrated that lower levels of feelings of stigma in older adults as well as other age groups may lead to improvements in accessing and engaging in behavioral health treatment.

Research has shown alcohol expectancies to be critically important in understanding maladaptive drinking patterns within alcohol use disorders. Alcohol expectancies, thought to be automatically elicited in the presence of environmental alcohol-related cues, represent both cognitive and affective associations with drinking behavior. However, the automatic and affective properties of alcohol expectancies have not yet been thoroughly measured in the literature. Psychophysiological measures, including skin conductance, heart rate, and the acoustic startle response in particular, offer a uniquely powerful set of indices for the automatic affective processing of alcohol-related cues. Therefore, the present study was designed to examine how alcohol expectancies moderate affective processing of alcohol cues and how they relate to other known risk variables for alcohol use disorders.Fifty-eight college-aged participants viewed pictures from three categories (neutral, alcohol-nonsocial, and alcohol-social) and gave subjective ratings of valence, arousal, dominance, and craving for each cue. Skin conductance, heart rate and startle responses were obtained during picture viewing. The startle eyeblink reflex was probed early in the picture viewing sequence to assess arousing and attentional cue properties and late in order to address affective and motivational cue properties.Analyses indicated that participants reporting more positive, arousing, and social alcohol expectancies rated alcohol cues as more pleasant, arousing and craving-inducing. Individuals with greater positive/arousing alcohol expectancies displayed blunted cardiac deceleration during alcohol-related cues, indicating that they processed these cues as less aversive than other participants. In addition, individuals with greater social alcohol expectancies displayed greater skin conductance response to alcohol-related cues, indicating increased arousal during alcohol pictures. Startle response patterns indicated that individuals at greater risk for alcohol use disorders (i.e. family history positive, greater positive/arousing alcohol expectancies) displayed blunted processing of alcohol-related cues, while individuals at lower risk processed alcohol-related cues as more pleasing and attention-grabbing. Ultimately, alcohol-related cues were processed as more pleasing and appetitive among lower-risk individuals, lending support to affective and automatic processing component of alcohol expectancy theory. This study also lends further evidence to support blunted affective processing of alcohol-related stimuli among high risk individuals.

M. Tech. Marketing / The primary objective of this study was to investigate the role that advertising plays in alcoholic beverage consumption patterns of the youth of Tshwane. Several secondary research objectives were set which include: examining the overall alcoholic beverage consumption of young people, the alcoholic beverage types and brands consumed, exposure to alcoholic beverage brand advertising, exposure to media in which alcoholic beverages are advertised, differences between males and females with regards to their consumption of alcoholic beverages as well as the alcoholic beverage types they consume, the relationship between age and alcoholic beverage consumption, income and alcoholic beverage consumption and other factors that can influence young people to consume alcoholic beverages.

In 2005, suicide was the third leading cause of death among youth 10-24 years of age in the U.S. —accounting for 4,482 deaths. Youth suicide is an important public health problem in the U.S. and research focusing specifically on gender differences is needed and warranted since recent research shows that rates of suicide attempts have increased specifically among young girls. Analyses of the recently released 2007 YRBS data (n=14,041; girls=7,036; boys=6,992) of high school students in 9-12th grades, show that 6.9% of adolescents attempted suicide (9.3% of girls versus 4.6% of boys) and 14.5% seriously considered a suicide attempt (18.7% of girls versus 10.3% of boys). Girls are 2.89 (95% CI: 2.31-3.61) times more likely than boys to report attempting suicide in the past 12 months. Moreover, girls who reported attempting suicide were significantly more likely to also report other risk factors such as depression (OR= 5.74), weapon carrying (OR= 1.48), experiencing intimate partner violence (OR=1.60), being forced to have sexual intercourse (1.72), huffing glue (OR=2.04), and being a minority (OR 1.65). However, boys who reported attempting suicide were significantly more likely to also report weapon carrying (OR=1.66), being forced to have sexual intercourse (OR=2.60), huffing glue (OR=1.63), participating in sports (OR=1.52), depression (OR=10.96), hard drug use (OR=2.18), and being a minority (OR=1.93). Furthermore, analyses of 1991 – 2007 YRBS data revealed that these gender specific risks have remained fairly constant over time. These findings will help guide prevention and intervention strategies to prevent suicide and suicidal behaviors among both girls and boys.

Impulsive personality traits have been found to be robust predictors of substance use and problems in both cross-sectional and longitudinal research. Studies examining the relations of substance use and impulsive personality over time indicate bidirectional effects, where substance use is also predictive of increases in later impulsive personality. The mechanism(s) accounting for the impact of substance use on later personality remain unknown. The present study sought to explore the bidirectional relations of alcohol use with the impulsive personality traits over three time points, and to examine two potential mechanisms that could account for the impact of alcohol use on personality: the development of alcohol-related problems and social norms for substance use. Participants were 525 college students (48.0% male, 81.1% Caucasian), who completed self-report measures assessing personality traits and a structured interview assessing past and current substance use. Data collection took place at three different time points: the first occurred during participants’ first year of college (T1), and follow-ups took place approximately one-year (T2) and two-years (T3) later. Bidirectional relations were examined using structural equation modeling to control for the relations among the variables of interest within time points and the stability of the variables across time. T1 sensation seeking and lack of premeditation predicted higher levels of alcohol use at T3, and T1 alcohol use predicted higher levels of all three impulsive traits at T3. T2 friend norms for drug use were found to significantly mediate the relation between T1 alcohol use and T3 sensation seeking, and T2 alcohol problems were found to significantly mediate the relation between T1 alcohol use and T3 negative urgency. Findings provide greater resolution in characterizing the bidirectional relation between impulsive personality traits and substance use, and demonstrate that sensation seeking and negative urgency are impacted through distinct mechanisms.