This study examined how parenting factors were associated with adolescent problem behaviors among urban minority youth and to what extent these relationships were moderated by family structure and gender. Sixth-grade students (N = 228) reported how often they use alcohol, smoke cigarettes, or engage in aggressive or delinquent behaviors; a parent or guardian reported their monitoring and other parenting practices. Findings indicated that boys and those from singleparent families engaged in the highest rates of problem behavior. More parental monitoring was associated with less delinquency overall, as well as less drinking in boys only. Eating family dinners together was associated with less aggression overall, as well as less delinquency in youth from single-parent families and in girls. Unsupervised time at home alone was associated with more smoking for girls only. Implications for prevention interventions are discussed. Research and theory on the etiology of problem behavior in childhood and adolescence often focus on the role of the family in the development of antisocial behavior (

Latent growth modeling was used to test dynamic relations between self-esteem and alcohol use in 740 middle school youth assessed at four time points. Self-esteem was characterized by a negative growth trajectory, whereas alcohol use increased steadily in a linear fashion. An initial simplified model positing bidirectional influences indicated an inverse relation between changes in self-esteem and alcohol use over time, but that initial levels of neither alcohol use nor self-esteem influenced changes in the other construct. With the addition of external covariates (i.e., gender and indices of social skills and competence risk), findings indicated that high initial levels of self-esteem fostered more increases in alcohol use compared to low initial levels of self-esteem. Findings further indicated that youth with poor competence skills advanced more rapidly in their alcohol use and declined more gradually in their self-esteem, and that poor social skills accelerated the rate of decline in self-esteem. Results indicate that self-esteem is part of a dynamic set of etiological forces that instigate early-stage alcohol use.

Expectancies play an important role in the generation of adolescent alcohol use. However, few studies have precisely elucidated their role when specified with other prominent measures of social influences, which may also independently promote alcohol use. Three-year panel data and path-analytic techniques were used to test a model positing that social reinforcement expectancies mediate the effects of perceived friends' alcohol use, friends' alcohol attitudes, and knowledge of near-term health effects and alcohol prevalence on both contemporaneous and subsequent alcohol involvement. Evidence of mediation was obtained with both cross-sectional and longitudinal findings. Perceived peer norms had a direct effect on alcohol use, and knowledge of normative alcohol use had a unique long-term protective influence on later alcohol use. Findings are discussed in terms of a 2-pronged prevention model that (a) integrates principles of social learning theory with expectancy-based, cognitive-behavioral change and (b) emphasizes dissemination of age-appropriate alcohol information in programs that aim to reduce alcohol use. A growing body of literature supports the strength of alcohol-related expectancies as important determinants of adolescent drinking behavior (e.g.

Numerous alcohol and drug abuse prevention trials have included social resistance training as a strategy for reducing early-stage adolescent alcohol use. Evaluations of these trials has shown them to be moderately effective, although the precise impact of the resistance training in comparison to other programmatic features has not been clearly identified. The current study examined the extent to which assertiveness and related social skills, personal competence (perceived cognitive mastery), and refusal efficacy predict alcohol involvement. Males were at greater risk for poor refusal skills and reported higher alcohol involvement. Cross-sectionally, youth characterized by poor social skill development reported lower refusal efficacy, lower grades, poor competence, and more alcohol use. Poor refusal efficacy was associated with more risk-taking, lower grades, less competence, and more alcohol use. Longitudinally, both poor refusal skills and risk-taking were associated with higher alcohol use. High personal competence was associated with lower alcohol use in both the eighth and tenth grades, but had no long-term effects on alcohol use. Findings highlight the close interplay between perceived competence and refusal skill efficacy, both of which should be included as essential components of school-based prevention strategies.

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Determinants of initial alcohol use may differ from predictors of accelerated or problematic consumption. Social influences may be strong predictors of initial drinking; however, later stages of problem drinking may be linked developmentally to intrapersonal deficits. This study prospectively examined the influence of chronic and changing risk and protective status in predicting adolescent alcohol involvement and transitions in alcohol use. Method: Data were obtained from a three-wave cohort (N = 823) of 8th-10th grade nonintervention students participating in a school-based drug abuse prevention trial. Cognitive, attitudinal and social influence measures were dichotomized using empirical cutoffs to designate risk or protective status. Using a conceptually based assignment scheme, additive risk indices were created assessing chronic (averaging across time) and changing features of competence, psychological and interpersonal functioning, cognitive-affective and social influences. Three chronic and change protective indices were created tapping competence, psychological, and interpersonal functioning. Results: Controlling for initial drink

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