Association of screening and brief intervention with substance use in Massachusetts middle and high schools.

Importance: Screening and brief intervention (SBI) programs in schools have the potential to provide substance use prevention messages to large numbers of adolescents. This study evaluated the association between exposure to a school-based SBI program and reductions in substance use among youths after enactment of a law that required Massachusetts schools to provide SBI to all students. Question: Is exposure to a screening and brief intervention (SBI) program in schools associated with reductions in student substance use? Findings: In this quality improvement study involving 4587 students in grades 7 through 10 who were exposed to a school-based SBI program in Massachusetts, cannabis and e-cigarette use increased over time in all groups. Exposure to SBI was associated with a significantly smaller increase in the rate of cannabis use among middle school students and significantly smaller increases in the rates of cannabis and e-cigarette use among all female students; however, there was no significant difference in any comparison among all high school students. Meaning: This study’s findings suggest that school-based SBI programs, which are mandatory in Massachusetts, may help to reduce substance use among middle school and female students

Europe in world regional perspective: formations of modernity and major historical transformations

The paper seeks to present a world regional approach to the analysis of modernity and in doing so it also aims to make a contribution to comparative sociology and social theory. It is argued that world regions are the most suitable entry‐point for comparing different socio‐political constellations of our time, preferable to continents, civilizations and nation‐states. However, a world regional foundation on its own is insufficient, due to the internal plurality and historically changing forms of world regions, and therefore needs to be accompanied by a concept that provides some degree of coherence within world regions and a tool for comparison with other world regions. The notion of modernity offers this level of generality while at the same time allowing for variety in its historical forms. Six main formations of modernity are identified, of which the European model was the first one and often a cultural reference for many other parts of the world. The thesis is that in the present day the most important developments are in the Asian and Latin American varieties, which unlike Europe are witnessing major historical transformation. Decisive in all of this is the question of democratization in the shaping of social imaginaries. Beginning with the problem of how to define the specificity of Europe, the paper provides an exploratory analysis of some of the salient considerations around a number of world regions, their formations of modernity, and the extent of major historical transformations in their present constitution