This study compared the efficacy of multisystemic therapy (MST) and individual therapy (IT) in the outpatient treatment of adolescent sexual offenders. Sixteen adolescent sexual offenders were randomly assigned to either MST or IT conditions. Youths in the MST and IT conditions received an average of 37 hours and 4S hours of treatment, respectively. Recidivism data were collected on all subjects at an approximately 3-year follow-up. Betweengroups comparisons showed that significantly fewer subjects in the MST condition had been rearrested for sexual crimes and that the frequency of sexual rearrests was significantly lower in the MST condition than in the IT condition. The relative efficacy of MST was attributed to its emphasis on changing behavior and interpersonal relations within the offender's natural environment.

This investigation evaluated the impact of parental influences on children's food selections and the impact of childhood obesity on these food choices. Subjects were 53 young children of various weight status. Foods ranging widely in nutritional values were offered to each child for lunch. The children were again offered foods but were told that their mothers would be monitoring their selections. Finally, mothers were allowed to modify their children's last food choices. Results indicated that parental influences have a marked effect on food selection; both the threat of parental monitoring and actual parental monitoring lowered the number of nonnutritious foods chosen and total caloric content of the meal. The obesity status of the mothers and children had no impact on these results. The implication of these results for future intervention efforts are discussed.

ABSTRACT. Objective. Pediatricians have a unique and important role to play in the prevention and treatment of childhood and adolescent tobacco use, the protection of patients from the harmful effects of environmental tobacco smoke, and the encouragement of smoking cessation among parents. However, because recent research indicates that physician training in tobacco dependence is woefully weak and lacks a model for training, this article constructs a useful approach to this problem.Methodology. A comprehensive review of the literature served as the basis for the development of a new model for pediatrician training in tobacco dependence.Results. A comprehensive model is presented for training pediatricians in the areas of reducing infant and child exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, preventing youth smoking initiation, and providing smoking cessation assistance for adolescents and parents.Conclusions. Pediatricians have been called on to play an active role in the antitobacco arena. Because of their unique opportunity to interact with children, adolescents, and parents, pediatricians can and should be antitobacco interventionists. For this to occur, however, additional guidance should be provided to pediatricians during their training to better prepare them to carry out effective assessment and intervention practices. Pediatrics 2000;106(5). URL: http://www.pediatrics.org/ cgi/content/full/106/5/e66; smoking initiation, smoking prevention, smoking cessation, environmental tobacco smoke, pediatricians.

Results-Approximately 32% of the trainees smoked regularly before basic training and a small percentage of the trainees (7.6%) described themselves as exsmokers. Men, Euro-Americans, and those from lower educational backgrounds were more likely to smoke than other trainees. On average, smokers had smoked for approximately four years and had low nicotine dependence scores. Individuals who had smoked before BMT were more likely to use other drugs (such as alcohol, binge drinking, smokeless tobacco), and were less physically active than never-smokers. These findings were particularly strong for those who smoked up to basic training but were also evident for ex-smokers. Conclusions-Smoking is a prevalent risk factor among individuals entering the USAF. Furthermore, smoking was related to other risk factors believed to lower military readiness, including alcohol use and decreased physical activity. Comprehensive tobacco control policies aimed at reducing smoking among military trainees are needed. (Tobacco Control 1998;7:232-235)