Exploring Sustainable Transportation Attitudes and Stages of Change Using Survey and Geospatial Data in New England Campus Commuters

This paper presents findings of a two-campus project designed to assess alternative/sustainable transportation (AT), which is defined as commuting via non-SOVs (single occupancy vehicles) such as transit, carpooling, walking, or biking. One of the objectives was to test the application of a well-known behavior change model, the Transtheoretical Model of Change (TTM), to transportation behaviors. Additionally, geospatial analysis and visualization were applied using the TTM measures. The survey results show that commuting distances, transit connectivity, and status (i.e., students, staff, and faculty) affected commute modes and stages of readiness to use AT. Another important finding was that the survey data for AT replicated TTM relationship predictions between constructs and stages of change

Interactions between Genetic, Prenatal, Cortisol, and Parenting Influences on Adolescent Substance Use and Frequency:A TRAILS Study

INTRODUCTION: Dynamic relations between genetic, hormone, and pre- and postnatal environments are theorized as critically important for adolescent substance use but are rarely tested in multifactorial models. This study assessed the impact of interactions of genetic risk and cortisol reactivity with prenatal and parenting influences on both any and frequency of adolescent substance use. METHODS: Data are from the TRacking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey (TRAILS), a prospective longitudinal, multi-rater study of 2,230 Dutch adolescents. Genetic risk was assessed via 3 substance-specific polygenic scores. Mothers retrospectively reported prenatal risk when adolescents were 11 years old. Adolescents rated their parents' warmth and hostility at age 11. Salivary cortisol reactivity was measured in response to a social stress task at age 16. Adolescents' self-reported cigarette, alcohol, and cannabis use frequency at age 16. RESULTS: A multivariate hurdle regression model showed that polygenic risk for smoking, alcohol, and cannabis predicted any use of each substance, respectively, but predicted more frequent use only for smoking. Blunted cortisol reactivity predicted any use and more frequent use for all 3 outcomes. There were 2 interactions: blunted cortisol reactivity exacerbated the association of polygenic risk with any smoking and the association of prenatal risk with any alcohol use. CONCLUSION: Polygenic risk seems of importance for early use but less so for frequency of use, whereas blunted cortisol reactivity was correlated with both. Blunted cortisol reactivity may also catalyze early risks for substance use, though to a limited degree. Gene-environment interactions play no role in the context of this multifactorial model

Longitudinal analysis of intervention effects on temptations and stages of change for dietary fat using parallel process latent growth modeling

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend a 20–35 percent daily intake of fat. Resisting the temptation to eat high-fat foods, in conjunction with stage of readiness to avoid these foods, has been shown to influence healthy behavior change. Data (N = 6516) from three randomized controlled trials were pooled to examine the relationships among direct intervention effects on temptations and stage of change for limiting high-fat foods. Findings demonstrate separate simultaneous growth processes in which baseline level of temptations, but not the rate of change in temptations, was significantly related to the change in readiness to avoid high-fat foods

Self-Injurious Thoughts and Behaviors Among College Students: A Latent Class Analysis

This study explored emerging typologies of self-injurious thoughts and behaviors and how they relate to known psychological and cognitive correlates. Latent class analysis was employed to identify subgroups of college students (n = 626, mean age = 20, 73% female, and 83% White) based on history of self-injurious thoughts and behaviors. Differences among classes were tested to examine their associations with suicidal ideation, fearlessness of death, depression/hopelessness, thwarted belongingness, problems with alcohol or drugs, behavioral inhibition, and emotional control. Results of the latent class analysis supported a 3-class solution, with students classified as being likely to have (1) no history of any self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (78%); (2) a history of all self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (8%); or (3) a history of suicidal ideation, plan, and non-suicidal self-injurious thoughts and behaviors, but not suicide attempt (13%). Findings examining correlates of self-injurious thoughts and behaviors highlight the importance of fearlessness of death for distinguishing suicide attempters from non-attempters. Attention to mental health and suicide prevention initiatives should remain a critical priority across college campuses

Replicating cluster subtypes for the prevention of adolescent smoking and alcohol use

Introduction: Substance abuse interventions tailored to the individual level have produced effective outcomes for a wide variety of behaviors. One approach to enhancing tailoring involves using cluster analysis to identify prevention subtypes that represent different attitudes about substance use. This study applied this approach to better understand tailored interventions for smoking and alcohol prevention. Methods: Analyses were performed on a sample of sixth graders from 20 New England middle schools involved in a 36-month tailored intervention study. Most adolescents reported being in the Acquisition Precontemplation (aPC) stage at baseline: not smoking or not drinking and not planning to start in the next six months. For smoking (N = 4059) and alcohol (N = 3973), each sample was randomly split into five subsamples. Cluster analysis was performed within each subsample based on three variables: Pros and Cons (from Decisional Balance Scales), and Situational Temptations. Results: Across all subsamples for both smoking and alcohol, the following four clusters were identified: (1) Most Protected (MP; low Pros, high Cons, low Temptations); (2) Ambivalent (AM; high Pros, average Cons and Temptations); (3) Risk Denial (RD; average Pros, low Cons, average Temptations); and (4) High Risk (HR; high Pros, low Cons, and very high Temptations). Conclusions: Finding the same four clusters within aPC for both smoking and alcohol, replicating the results across the five subsamples, and demonstrating hypothesized relations among the clusters with additional external validity analyses provide strong evidence of the robustness of these results. These clusters demonstrate evidence of validity and can provide a basis for tailoring interventions

Invariance of measures to understand decision-making for pursuing living donor kidney transplant

Living donor kidney transplant is the ideal treatment option for end-stage renal disease; however, the decision to pursue living donor kidney transplant is complex and challenging. Measurement invariance of living donor kidney transplant Decisional Balance and Self-Efficacy across gender (male/female), race (Black/White), and education level (no college/college or higher) were examined using a sequential approach. Full strict invariance was found for Decisional Balance and Self-Efficacy for gender and partial strict invariance was found for Decisional Balance and Self-Efficacy across race and education level. This information will inform tailored feedback based on these constructs in future intervention studies targeting behavior change among specific demographic subgroups

Nonmedical Prescription Opioid Use among a Sample of College Students: Prevalence and Predictors

Nonmedical use of prescription opioid medication (NMPO) in the United States is a public health crisis, resulting in high rates of emergency room visits, morbidity, and mortality. The purpose of this study was to explore prevalence estimates and correlates of NMPO among a convenience sample of college students in the northeast and southeast regions of the US to help generate directions for future research. Motivations for misuse, age of onset, access, concomitant substance use, and individual factors were investigated among a sample of undergraduate students from two universities. Participants (N = 847) completed a battery of various self-report measures. Findings revealed that 7.7% (Southeastern University) and 12.8% of students (Northeastern University) reported lifetime NMPO, whereas past-month NMPO was reported by 0.8% and 0.9% of participants, respectively. Lifetime history of regularly using alcohol, nonmedical use of benzodiazepine medication, nonmedical use of prescription stimulants, symptoms of depression and anxiety, and executive functioning (i.e., metacognition and behavioral regulation) were significantly related to lifetime history of NMPO in this college sample. These findings offer several potential subsequent lines of investigation regarding the associations between various demographic and psychological factors and NMPO. Future research is needed to help identify college students who are at risk of NMPO

Dry Bean: A Protein-Rich Superfood With Carbohydrate Characteristics That Can Close the Dietary Fiber Gap

Consumer food choices are often focused on protein intake, but the chosen sources are frequently either animal-based protein that has high fat content or plant-based protein that is low in other nutrients. In either case, these protein sources often lack dietary fiber, which is a nutrient of concern in the 2020–2025 Dietary Guide for Americans. Pulse crops, such as dry edible beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), are a rich source of dietary protein and contain approximately equal amounts of dietary fiber per 100 kcal edible portion; yet the consumer's attention has not been directed to this important fact. If product labeling were used to draw attention to the similar ratio of dietary protein to dietary fiber in dry bean and other pulses, measures of carbohydrate quality could also be highlighted. Dietary fiber is categorized into three fractions, namely, soluble (SDF), insoluble (IDF), and oligosaccharides (OLIGO), yet nutrient composition databases, as well as food labels, usually report only crude fiber. The objectives of this research were to measure the content of SDF, IDF, and OLIGO in a large genetically diverse panel of bean cultivars and improved germplasm (n = 275) and determine the impact of growing environment on the content of DF. Dietary fiber was evaluated using the American Association of Analytical Chemist 2011.25 method on bean seed grown at two locations. Dry bean cultivars differed for all DF components (P ≤ 0.05). Insoluble dietary fiber constituted the highest portion of total DF (54.0%), followed by SDF (29.1%) and OLIGO (16.8%). Mean total DF and all components did not differ among genotypes grown in two field environments. These results indicate that value could be added to dry bean by cultivar-specific food labeling for protein and components of dietary fiber