Social norms play an important role in adolescent substance use. Norm focus theory (Cialdini, Reno, & Kallgren, 1990) distinguishes three types of norms: injunctive, descriptive, and personal. This study examines the relative influences of these three norms, as well as the moderating effects of gender and ethnicity, on the concurrent substance use of 2,245 Mexican or Mexican-American students, 676 students of other Latino or multiethnic Latino origin, 756 non-Hispanic White students, and 353 African- American students. Personal norms appear to be the strongest significant predictor of substance use. Descriptive, parental injunctive, and friend injunctive norms also demonstrate significant, though weaker influences. Controlling for intentions reduces the predictive ability of each type of norm, especially personal norms. Gender moderates the relationship between norms and substance use with the relationships generally stronger for males. Personal norms act as stronger predictors of some types of substance use for Mexican/Mexican Americans.

Research addressing parent-child communication on the topic of alcohol use relies heavily on assessing frequency of discussions and general assessments of openness in parent-child communication, ignoring the complexity of this communication phenomenon. This study adds to the literature by articulating a conceptualization and developing a measurement of parent-child communication-targeted parent-child communication about alcohol-and comparing the efficacy of targeted parent-child communication about alcohol in predicting positive expectancies of alcohol use and recent alcohol use. The predictive power of general openness in parent-child communication and frequency of communication about alcohol also were assessed. Students in 5 th and 6 th grade (N = 1407) from 29 public schools completed surveys. Targeted parent-child communication about alcohol was negatively associated with both outcomes. Frequency and general openness were only negatively associated with positive expectancies regarding alcohol. Implications of these findings for the etiology and prevention of substance use are discussed.In the U.S., alcohol abuse has become a part of our public consciousness due to the pervasive use by our nation's youth (Johnston, O'Malley, Bachman, & Schulenberg, 2007). A national survey revealed that 39% of 8 th grade students reported having consumed alcohol in their lifetime with 18% consuming to the point of drunkenness (Johnston et al., 2007). Concern over alcohol use rates stem from the finding that the earlier youth initiate alcohol use, the more likely they are to develop alcohol dependence and related problems in adulthood (Grant & Dawson, 1997). Based on the Gateway Hypothesis, Collins (2002) suggests that most adolescents begin with alcohol consumption followed by other substances. The risks of teen alcohol and other substance use include accidental injury, addiction, academic failure, impaired social maturation, and mortality (Johnston et al., 2007). The seriousness of the consequences of alcohol use by youth has generated policies, programs, and research interest in the prevention of use and abuse among youth. An outcome of these efforts over the past few decades is a complex body of knowledge concerning the etiology of alcohol use, revealing a dynamic and multifaceted system of personal and contextual factors of influence (Hawkins, Catalano, & Miller, 1992).The question remains, what influences the uptake and continued use of alcohol and other substances among youth in the U.S.? The prevention literature indicates that parental influences, parent-child communication in particular, may effectively buffer against the risks of early use initiation (Brody, Murry, Kim, & Brown, 2002;Miller, Alberts, Hecht, Trost, & Krizek, 2000), predict negative attitudes toward alcohol use (Perry et al, 2002), and reduce All correspondence should be directed to the first author at 234 Sparks, University Park, PA 16802, U.S.A., or via, mam32@psu.edu. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptHealth Commun. Author manuscript; avai...

This study examined the narratives of 75 parent-offspring pairs who were asked to relate their shared drug prevention conversations. A descriptive model of parent-offspring drug talks (PODT) was developed to address the form, content, and function of parent-offspring discourse about drugs and drug use. Additionally, two temporal approaches to socializing conservative drug use norms were identified -targeted socialization and integrated socialization. Over two-thirds of the respondents reported integrating ongoing socialization efforts into the fabric of their everyday lives in contrast to more targeted one-shot 'drug talks.' KEY WORDS: drug prevention • health communication • interpersonal communication • parent-child communication • socializationAlcohol and other drug use is implicated in more than 40% of all academic problems among college students and 28% of all college dropouts. Of the nearly 12 million undergraduates in the United States of America, recent statistics indicate that 240,

Because the researcher is the instrument in semistructured or unstructured qualitative interviews, unique researcher characteristics have the potential to influence the collection of empirical materials. This concept, although widely acknowledged, has garnered little systematic investigation. This article discusses the interviewer characteristics of three different interviewers who are part of a qualitative research team. The researcher/interviewers – and authors of this article – reflect on their own and each other’s interviews and explore the ways in which individual interview practices create unique conversational spaces. The results suggest that certain interviewer characteristics may be more effective than others in eliciting detailed narratives from respondents depending on the perceived sensitivity of the topic, but that variation in interviewer characteristics may benefit rather than detract from the goals of team-based qualitative inquiry. The authors call for the inclusion of enhanced self-reflexivity in interviewer training and development activities and argue against standardization of interviewer practices in qualitative research teams.

This paper describes a Narrative Engagement Framework (NEF) for guiding communication-based prevention efforts. This framework suggests that personal narratives have distinctive capabilities in prevention. The paper discusses the concept of narrative, links narrative to prevention, and discusses the central role of youth in developing narrative interventions. As illustration, the authors describe how the NEF is applied in the keepin’ it REAL adolescent drug prevention curriculum, pose theoretical directions, and offer suggestions for future work in prevention communication.

This paper reports on the evaluation of a culturally grounded prevention intervention targeting substance use among urban middle-school students. The curriculum consists of 10 lessons promoting antidrug norms and teaching resistance and other social skills, reinforced by booster activities and a media campaign. Three versions were delivered: Mexican American, combined African American and European American, and Multicultural. Thirty-five middle schools were randomly assigned to 1 of the 3 versions or the control. Students completed baseline and follow-up questionnaires over a 2-year period (total 6,035 respondents). Analyses utilizing a generalized estimating equations approach assessed the overall effectiveness of cultural grounding and the cultural matching hypothesis. Support was found for the intervention's overall effectiveness, with statistically significant effects on gateway drug use as well as norms, attitudes, and resistance strategies but with little support for the cultural matching hypothesis. Specific contrasts found the Mexican American and Multicultural versions impacted the most outcomes.

This research, comprised of 2 studies, extends current knowledge of parent-child communication about drugs. The first study developed a typology of parental strategies used to deter children's substance use. The second study examined relationships among the parental strategies identified in the first study, which included family communication environments and self-reported substance use. Results revealed that parental communication strategies to deter substance use may be employed in different ways by laissez-faire, pluralistic, consensual, and protective families. Of the 7 identified types of strategies, very few actually impacted substance use in the previous 30 days. The only strategy to have a significant effect on the use of all drug types was a ''no tolerance rule.'' Prevention efforts and programs may target parents so as to enhance parental communication competence and offer parents an array of strategies to choose from that might best fit with their family communication environment.

For this study, 67 adolescent African American and Caucasian adolescents were interviewed about their parent-adolescent conversations regarding alcohol, tobacco, and other drug (ATOD) use. Analyses indicated that fewer than half of the youth had engaged in a conversation with one or more parent about ATOD use and that significantly more adolescents felt closest to and preferred talking with their mothers about risky topics than to other family members. Moreover, the results suggested that parental antidrug messages were part of the ongoing discourse of family life rather than structured in an isolated “drug talk,” as is advocated in contemporary media. This article argues for a clearer definition of the parent-adolescent conversation, discusses implications for targeting mothers as prevention agents, and introduces risksocialization theory.