Measurement of self-efficacy and proxy efficacy for middle school youth physical activity

This study developed youth self-efficacy (SEPA) and proxy efficacy (PEPA) measures for physical activity (PA). Proxy efficacy was defined as a youth's confidence in his or her skills and abilities to get others to act in one's interests to create supportive environments for PA. Each spring of their sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade years, middle school students completed SEPA and PEPA questions and then, for 3 days, recalled their previous day's after-school PA. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed a four-factor structure (SEPA for 1-3 days, SEPA for 5-7 days, PEPA-Parents, PEPA-School). Across study years, SEPA 1-3 days and 5-7 days increased and PEPA-Parents and PEPA-School decreased. Initial levels of PEPA-Parents and SEPA scales were associated with initial levels of PA. From sixth through seventh grade, changes in SEPA scales were associated with changes in PA. Studies should test whether interventions targeting self-efficacy and proxy efficacy influence PA. © 2007 Human Kinetics, Inc

Validating alcohol use measures among male drinkers in Goa: implications for research on alcohol, sexual risk, and HIV in India.

Assessment of heavy drinking patterns is vital for HIV/AIDs studies in India and developing countries. A population survey in northern Goa included urban and rural male drinkers (n = 743) who completed a new Fractional Graduated Frequencies (F-GF) alcohol patterns measure assessing seven beverage types and drink sizes for the largest daily amount, then drinking frequencies at fractional amounts. The new measure was compared to a simpler quantity-frequency (QF) summary and, in a validity subsample of hazardous drinkers (n = 56), 28-day diaries of drinking events. Approximately 56% of total volume came from peak drinking (averaging 60 g ethanol/day). For AUDIT-based Hazardous Drinkers, QF and F-GF volumes (drinks/day) were not significantly different from diary volume (correlations 0.65 and 0.57, respectively). F-GF well captured the profile of daily amounts in drinking event data. In addition, the F-GF showed evidence of better predicting any sexual risk behavior or partner violence perpetration than the QF measure. Summary drinking pattern measures, especially the new F-GF, are more cost efficient than intensive event records, and appear valid when carefully assessing quantities with local beverage types and drink ethanol content

Differential vulnerability to relapse into heroin versus cocaine-seeking as a function of setting

RATIONALE Previous studies have shown that the effect of setting on drug-taking is substance specific in both humans and rats. In particular, we have shown that when the setting of drug self-administration (SA) coincides with the home environment of the rats (resident rats), the rats tend to prefer heroin to cocaine. The opposite was found in nonresident rats, for which the SA chambers represented a distinct environment. OBJECTIVES The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of setting on the ability of different doses of cocaine and heroin to prime cocaine- versus heroin-seeking in rats that had been trained to self-administer both drugs and had then undergone an extinction procedure. METHODS Resident (N = 62) and nonresident (N = 63) rats with double-lumen intra-jugular catheters were trained to self-administer cocaine (400 μg/kg/infusion) and heroin (25 μg/kg/infusion) on alternate days for 10 consecutive daily sessions (3 h each). After the extinction phase, independent groups of rats were given a noncontingent intravenous infusion of heroin (25, 50, or 100 μg/kg) or cocaine (400, 800, or 1600 μg/kg), and drug-seeking was quantified by counting nonreinforced lever presses. RESULTS All resident and nonresident rats acquired heroin and cocaine SA. However, cocaine primings reinstated cocaine-seeking only in nonresident rats, whereas heroin primings reinstated heroin-seeking only in resident rats. CONCLUSIONS We report here that the susceptibility to relapse into drug-seeking behavior is drug-specific and setting-specific, confirming the crucial role played by drug, set, and setting interactions in drug addiction