The effects of purchasing alcohol and marijuana among adolescents at-risk for future substance use

BACKGROUND: Among high-risk youth, those who may be at increased risk for adverse alcohol and other drug (AOD) use outcomes may benefit from targeted prevention efforts; how youth acquire AOD may provide an objective means of identifying youth at elevated risk. METHODS: We assessed how youth acquired alcohol and marijuana (purchasing vs. other means), demographics, AOD behaviors/consequences, and environment among adolescents referred to a diversion program called Teen Court (N = 180) at two time points (prior to the program and 180 days from baseline). Participants were predominantly White and Hispanic/Latino(a). RESULTS: In cross-sectional analyses among alcohol and marijuana users, purchasing marijuana was associated with more frequent marijuana use and consequences, time spent around teens who use marijuana, higher likelihood of substance use disorders, and lower resistance self-efficacy compared to non-purchasers. Teens who purchased both alcohol and marijuana experienced similar outcomes to those who purchased only marijuana, and also reported more frequent and higher quantity of drinking, greater alcohol-related consequences, time spent around teens who use other drugs, and prescription drug misuse. Longitudinally, purchasing alcohol and marijuana at baseline was associated with more frequent and higher quantity of drinking compared to non-purchasers at follow-up. Marijuana only purchasers had a greater likelihood of substance use disorders at follow-up compared to non-purchasers. CONCLUSIONS: In an era where drinking is commonplace and attitudes towards marijuana use are becoming more tolerant, it is essential to evaluate how accessibility to AOD and subsequent purchasing behaviors affect youth consumption and intervene accordingly to prevent future consequences

The psychometric properties of the subscales of the GHQ-28 in a multi-ethnic maternal sample: results from the Born in Bradford cohort

Background: Poor maternal mental health can impact on children’s development and wellbeing; however, there is concern about the comparability of screening instruments administered to women of diverse ethnic origin. Methods: We used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to examine the subscale structure of the GHQ-28 in an ethnically diverse community cohort of pregnant women in the UK (N = 5,089). We defined five groups according to ethnicity and language of administration, and also conducted a CFA between four groups of 1,095 women who completed the GHQ-28 both during and after pregnancy. Results: After item reduction, 17 of the 28 items were considered to relate to the same four underlying concepts in each group; however, there was variation in the response to individual items by women of different ethnic origin and this rendered between group comparisons problematic. The EFA revealed that these measurement difficulties might be related to variation in the underlying concepts being measured by the factors. Conclusions: We found little evidence to recommend the use of the GHQ-28 subscales in routine clinical or epidemiological assessment of maternal women in populations of diverse ethnicity

Assessing measurement invariance of familism and parental respect across race/ethnicity in adolescents

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Familism and parental respect are culturally derived constructs rooted in Hispanic and Asian cultures, respectively. Measures of these constructs have been utilized in research and found to predict delays in substance use initiation and reduced levels of use. However, given that these measures are explicitly designed to tap constructs that are considered important by different racial/ethnic groups, there is a risk that the measurement properties may not be equivalent across groups.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This study evaluated the measurement equivalence of measures of familism and parental respect in a large and diverse sample of middle school students in Southern California (n = 5646) using a multiple group confirmatory factor analysis approach.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Results showed little evidence of measurement variance across four racial/ethnic groups (African American, Hispanic, Asian, and non-Hispanic White), supporting the continued use of these measures in diverse populations. Some differences between latent variable means were identified – specifically that the Hispanic group and the white group differed on familism.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>No evidence of invariance was found. However, the item distributions were highly positively skewed, indicating a tendency for youth to endorse the most positive response, which may reduce the reliability of the measures and suggests that refinement is possible.</p

A Propensity-Score-Weighted Population-Based Study of the Health Benefits of Dogs and Cats for Children

There is a widely held belief that children’s general and psychological health benefits from owning and/or interacting with pets. In our study, we aimed to determine whether children who live with a dog or cat in their home have better mental and physical health outcomes compared with children without such a pet. Our study design consisted of a secondary analysis of household survey data from the 2003 California Health Interview Survey. Children in pet-owning households (n = 2,236 households with a dog or cat) were compared with children in non-pet owning households (n = 2,955 house-holds) using a weighted propensity score regression approach. Double robust regression analyses were used to examine the association between living with a dog or cat and health outcomes, while accounting for confounding factors. Our results demonstrated strong confounding effects. Unadjusted analyses found that children in pet-owning households were significantly healthier than children in non-owning households in terms of, for example, better general health, higher activity level, and less concern from parents regarding mood, behavior, and learning ability. However, when estimates were adjusted using the double robust approach, the effects were smaller and no longer statistically significant. The results indicate that the benefits of owning pets observed in this study were largely explained by confounding factors

Does Competitive Winning Increase Subsequent Cheating?

In this preregistered study, we attempted to replicate and substantially extend a frequently cited experiment by Schurr and Ritov, published in 2016, suggesting that winners of pairwise competitions are more likely than others to steal money in subsequent games of chance against different opponents, possibly because of an enhanced sense of entitlement among competition winners. A replication seemed desirable because of the relevance of the effect to dishonesty in everyday life, the apparent counterintuitivity of the effect, possible problems and anomalies in the original study, and above all the fact that the researchers investigated only one potential explanation for the effect. Our results failed to replicate Schurr and Ritov’s basic finding: we found no evidence to support the hypotheses that either winning or losing is associated with subsequent cheating. A second online study also failed to replicate Schurr and Ritov’s basic finding. We used structural equation modelling to test four possible explanations for cheating—sense of entitlement, self-confidence, feeling lucky, and inequality aversion. Only inequality aversion turned out to be significantly associated with cheating

Alcohol and marijuana use trajectories in a diverse longitudinal sample of adolescents: examining use patterns from age 11 to 17 years

AimsWe tested race/ethnic differences in alcohol and marijuana (AM) trajectories (comprising an intercept term, reflecting overall probability of use, and a slope term, reflecting change in probability of use) during adolescence, whether AM use trajectories predicted high school outcomes, and whether outcomes differed by race/ethnicity after controlling for trajectory of AM use.DesignThis longitudinal study involved 6509 youth from 16 middle schools in Southern California surveyed from age 11.5 (2008) to age 17 (2015) years; all surveys assessed AM use, and the final survey also examined high school outcomes.SettingYouth completed five surveys in middle school and two on-line surveys in high school.ParticipantsThe sample was 50% male and 80% non-white.MeasurementsIntercept (at 2.75 years post-baseline) and slope of AM use were examined as outcomes for race/ethnic differences. AM use trajectories were examined as predictors of academic performance and unpreparedness, social functioning, mental and physical health and delinquency.FindingsWe found differences in trajectories of use by race/ethnicity, with white youth reporting a higher overall intercept of alcohol use compared to all other groups (versus Asian P &lt; 0.001, black P = 0.001, multi-ethnic P = 0.008). Overall, examination of trajectories of use showed that adolescents with a higher alcohol use intercept term reported greater academic unpreparedness (P &lt; 0.001) and delinquency (P &lt; 0.001) at wave 7 in high school. In addition, youth with a higher intercept for marijuana use reported greater academic unpreparedness (P &lt; 0.001) and delinquency (P &lt; 0.001), and poorer academic performance (P = 0.032) and mental health (P = 0.002) in high school. At wave 7, compared to white youth, Hispanic and multi-ethnic youth reported poorer academic performance (P &lt; 0.001 and P = 0.034, respectively); Asian, black and Hispanic youth reported higher academic unpreparedness (P &lt; 0.001, P = 0.019, and P = 0.001); and Asian youth and multi-ethnic youth reported poorer physical health (P = 0.012 and P = 0.018) controlling for AM use.ConclusionsGreater AM use was associated with worse functioning in high school for all youth. After controlling for AM use, non-white youth reported worse outcomes in high school for academics and health

The Hispanic Paradox: Race/Ethnicity and Nativity, Immigrant Enclave Residence and Cognitive Impairment Among Older US Adults

Hispanics, and particularly foreign-born Mexican Americans, have been shown to fare better across a range of health outcomes than might be expected given the generally higher levels of socioeconomic disadvantage in this population, a phenomena termed the "Hispanic Paradox". Previous research on social disparities in cognitive aging, however, has been unable to address both race/ethnicity and nativity (REN) in a nationally-representative sample of US adults leaving unanswered questions about potentially "paradoxical" advantages of Mexican ethnic-origins and the role of nativity, socioeconomic status (SES), and enclave residence. We employ biennial assessments of cognitive functioning to study prevalent and incident cognitive impairment (CI) within the three largest US REN groups: US-born non-Hispanic whites (US-NHW), US-born non-Hispanic blacks (US-NHB), US-born Mexican Americans (US-MA), and foreign-born Mexican Americans (FB-MA). Data come from a nationally-representative sample of community-dwelling older adults in the Health and Retirement Study linked with the 2000 Census and followed over 10&nbsp;years (N&nbsp;=&nbsp;8,433). Large disadvantages in prevalent and incident CI were observed for all REN minorities respective to US-born non-Hispanic whites. Individual and neighborhood SES accounted substantially for these disadvantages and revealed an immigrant advantage: FB-MA odds of prevalent CI were about half those of US-NHW and hazards of incident CI were about half those of US-MA. Residence in an immigrant enclave was protective of prevalent CI among FB-MA. The findings illuminate important directions for research into the sources of cognitive risk and resilience and provide guidance about CI screening within the increasingly diverse aging US population