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This longitudinal study examined how separation and family conflict mediated the effects of two acculturation variables (English language use and generational status) on substance use (alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use) and deviant behavior outcomes in a Mexican American high school age sample. Structural equation modeling indicated that separation was a significant mediator of the relationship between acculturation and alcohol use, tobacco use, and deviant behavior. Family conflict mediated the effects of acculturation on marijuana use and deviant behavior. Model comparisons across gender groups suggested that generational status was an influential acculturation measure for females but not males. Additionally, English language use maintained a direct effect on marijuana use among females, whereas this relationship was mediated by separation for males.

The study used latent growth modeling to investigate longitudinal relationships between individuation, peer alcohol use, and adolescent alcohol use among African American, Mexican American, and non-Hispanic White adolescents (N = 6,048) from 7th, 8th, and 9th grades over a 3-year period. Initial levels of peer alcohol use were significantly related to changes in adolescents' alcohol use, whereas initial adolescent alcohol use also significantly related to changes in peers' alcohol use, suggesting a bidirectional relationship. Higher levels of intergenerational individuation were related to smaller increases in adolescent alcohol use and higher levels of separation were related to larger increases in youth drinking. The findings were similar across ethnic groups. Implications for development of prevention and intervention programs are discussed.

IntroductionThe expansion of mobile health technologies, particularly for diabetes-related applications (apps), grew exponentially in the past decade. This study sought to examine the extent to which current mobile apps for diabetes have health literate features recommended by participants in an Institute of Medicine Roundtable and compare the health literate features by app cost (free or not).MethodsWe used diabetes-related keywords to identify diabetes-related apps for iOS devices. A random sample of 110 apps (24% of total number of apps identified) was selected for coding. The coding scheme was adapted from the discussion paper produced by participants in the Institute of Medicine Roundtable.ResultsMost diabetes apps in this sample addressed diabetes management and therapeutics, and paid apps were more likely than free apps to use plain language strategies, to label links clearly, and to have at least 1 feature (a “back” button) that helps with the organization.ConclusionPaid apps were more likely than free apps to use strategies that should be more useful and engaging for people with low health literacy. Future work can investigate ways to make free diabetes mobile apps more user-friendly and accessible.

Social media are now used by a majority of American internet users. Social media platforms encourage participants to share information with their online social connections and exchange user-generated content. Significant numbers of people are already using social media to share health-related information. As such, social media provide an opportunity for “user-generated” cancer control and prevention interventions that employ users' behavior, knowledge, and existing social networks for the creation and dissemination of interventions. These interventions also enable novel data collection techniques and research designs that will allow investigators to examine real-time behavioral responses to interventions. Emerging social media-based interventions for modifying cancer-related behaviors have been applied to such domains as tobacco use, diet, physical activity, and sexual practices, and several examples are discussed for illustration purposes. Despite some promising early findings, challenges including inadequate user engagement, privacy concerns, and lack of internet access among some groups need to be addressed in future research. Recommendations for advancing the field include stronger partnerships with commercial technology companies, utilization of rapid and adaptive designs to identify successful strategies for user engagement, rigorous and iterative efficacy testing of these strategies, and inclusive methods for intervention dissemination. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 23(9); 1953–6. ©2014 AACR.