Researchers have renewed an interest in the harmful consequences of poverty on child development. This study builds on this work by focusing on one mechanism that links material hardship to child outcomes, namely the mediating effect of maternal depression. Using data from the National Maternal and Infant Health Survey, we found that maternal depression and poverty jeopardized the development of very young boys and girls, and to a certain extent, affluence buffered the deleterious consequences of depression. Results also showed that chronic maternal depression had severe implications for both boys and girls, whereas persistent poverty had a strong effect for the development of girls. The measures of poverty and maternal depression used in this study generally had a greater impact on measures of cognitive development than motor development.

This study supports mounting evidence that negative emotion in anti-smoking advertisements is effective with youth audiences.

Many young adult smokers are in the initiation phase of smoking and are likely to undergo a transition to either nonsmoking or heavier smoking. If unimpeded by regulation, tobacco promotion in bars and clubs is likely to lead to increased adult smoking prevalence.

Background Little is known about brand-specific alcohol consumption among underage youth, as existing information is collected at the level of alcoholic beverage type. This study identifies the alcohol brands consumed by a nationally representative sample of underage youth in the U.S. Methods We obtained a national sample of 1,032 underage youth, ages 13–20, using a pre-recruited internet panel maintained by Knowledge Networks. Youth ages 18–20 were recruited directly from the panel via email invitation. Teens ages 13–17 were identified by asking adult panelists to identify a member of their household. The survey assessed the past 30-day consumption of 898 brands of alcohol among 16 alcoholic beverage types, including the frequency and amount of each brand consumed in the past 30 days. Market share for a given brand was calculated by dividing the total number of drinks for that brand in the past 30 days across the entire sample by the total number of drinks for all identified brands. Results The alcohol brands with highest prevalence of past 30-day consumption were Bud Light (27.9%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 23.3%–32.4%), Smirnoff malt beverages (17.0%, 95% CI 12.9%–21.1%), and Budweiser (14.6%, 95% CI 11.0%–18.3%). Brand market share was concentrated in a relatively small number of brands, with the top 25 brands accounting for nearly half of all market share. Conclusions Underage youth alcohol consumption, although spread out over several alcoholic beverage types, is concentrated among a relatively small number of alcohol brands. This finding has important implications for alcohol research, practice, and policy.

OBJECTIVES-To determine whether adolescents living in households where smoking is banned are more likely to develop anti-smoking attitudes and less likely to progress to smoking.METHODS-A longitudinal, four-year, three-wave study of a representative sample of 3,834 Massachusetts youths ages12-17 at baseline, of whom 2,791 (72.8%) were re-interviewed after two years and 2,217 (57.8%) were re-interviewed after four years. We used a three-level hierarchical linear model (HLM) to analyze the effect of a household ban on anti-smoking attitudes and smoking behaviors. Requests for reprints should be sent to Alison B. Albers, PhD, Social and Behavioral Sciences Department, Boston University School of Public Health, 801 Massachusetts Avenue, Crosstown Center 4 th Floor, Boston, MA 02118 (aalbers@bu.edu). Contributors All of the authors contributed to conceptualization of the research question and the design of the study. A.B. Albers conducted the data analyses and wrote an initial draft of the article. M. Siegel interpreted findings and edited drafts of the articles. D.M. Cheng was responsible for analytic design, statistical and methodological guidance, and data interpretation. L. Biener was the principal investigator of the study and directed survey administration and data collection. N.A. Rigotti originated ideas and interpreted findings. All of the authors reviewed and edited the final version of the article. RESULTS-The Human Participant ProtectionThis study was approved by the institutional review boards of the University of Massachusetts at Boston (survey administration and data collection site) and the Boston University Medical Center (data analysis site for the study described in this article). The proliferation of U.S. smoke-free workplace policies and laws over the past decade has been accompanied by increased attention to private household smoking restrictions. Substantial increases have occurred in the number of U.S. households with comprehensive rules that make homes smoke free in all areas at all times. 1 The proportion of U.S. households with smokefree home rules increased from 43% in 1992-1993 to 72% in 2003. 2 Even smokers appear to be increasingly adopting such rules, particularly in homes in which they live with a nonsmoking adult. NIH Public AccessAlthough smoke-free home bans are typically implemented to reduce or eliminate secondhand smoke exposure in the household, these bans may have the additional benefit of reducing the initiation of smoking among youth by changing norms regarding the prevalence and social acceptability of smoking. Very little is known about the specific effect of a household smoking ban on youth smoking behavior or on smoking related attitudes and norms that may mediate an effect on smoking behavior. In particular, few studies have addressed the independent effect of bans on youth who live with smokers-those who are at the greatest risk of becoming smokers themselves.Recent studies show that strong local restaurant and bar smoking regulations are associated with more ...