GLB youth who self-identify during high school report disproportionate risk for a variety of health risk and problem behaviors, including suicide, victimization, sexual risk behaviors, and multiple substance use. In addition, these youth are more likely to report engaging in multiple risk behaviors and initiating risk behaviors at an earlier age than are their peers. These findings suggest that educational efforts, prevention programs, and health services must be designed to address the unique needs of GLB youth.

To examine the peer context of adolescent substance use, social network analysis was used to measure three domains of attributes of peer networks: social embeddedness, social status, and social proximity to substance users. The sample was a panel of 5,104 sixth, seventh, and eighth graders in three public school systems surveyed every 6 months for five assessments. Hierarchical generalized linear models showed that adolescents less embedded in the network, with greater status, and with closer social proximity to peer substance users were more likely to use substances. Also, adolescents in less dense networks and networks with higher smoking prevalence were more likely to smoke and use marijuana. Results establish the utility of social network analysis for measuring peer context and indicate that conventionality of relationships-having friends in the network, being liked but not too well liked, and having fewer friends who use substances-is most beneficial.Social network analysis has been identified as an appropriate method for studying the peer context of adolescent substance use (Ennett & Bauman, JOURNAL OF RESEARCH ON ADOLESCENCE, 16(2), 159-186

Background: Previous research based on problembehavior theory has found that early age of onset of substance use is associated with engaging in multiple health risk behaviors among high school students. It is unknown whether these relationships begin during early adolescence.Objective: To examine the relationships between early age of onset of cigarette, alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine use and engaging in multiple risk behaviors among middle school students.Methods: A modified version of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Youth Risk Behavior Survey was administered to 2227 sixth through eighth grade students attending 53 randomly selected middle schools in North Carolina. A Health Risk Behavior Scale was constructed from 16 behaviors, including indicators of violence and weapon carrying; current substance use; nonuse of helmets when biking, in-line skating or skateboarding; not wearing a seat belt; riding with a driver who had been drinking; and suicide plans. Among this sample of middle school students, the scale had a mean (SD) of 4.1 (2.7) (range=0-15), and had a high internal reliability coefficient (␣=0.74). The independent variables included first time use of cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine at age 11 years or earlier; actual age of onset of each substance; race and ethnicity; family composition; sex; school grade; academic ranking; and older age for school grade. These data were analyzed with analysis of variance, Spearman r, and multiple linear regression.Results: All the independent variables were found to be associated (PϽ.005) with the Health Risk Behavior Scale during the bivariate analyses. When each of these significant variables were entered into a multiple regression model, having smoked at age 11 years or younger accounted for 21.9% of the variation in the Health Risk Behavior Scale. Male sex, early marijuana or cocaine use, older age, lower academic rank, white race, and living in a 1parent family explained an additional 19.1% of variation in the model (adjusted R 2 =0.41, PϽ.001). When the actual ages of onset of the use of substances were analyzed, in order of magnitude; age of onset of smoking; male sex; age of onset of alcohol and marijuana use; age; lower academic ranking; age of onset of cocaine use; white race; and lower academic rating accounted for 52.8% (PϽ.001) of the variation in the Health Risk Behavior Scale.Editor's Note: I guess we can now say that early, early age of onset of substance abuse is associated with engaging in multiple health risk behaviors.

OBJECTIVES. The purpose of this study was to examine social and psychological factors associated with the use and nonuse of violence among Black adolescents living in a community with a high level of violent crime. METHODS. Adolescents (n = 225, 44% male) 11 to 19 years of age living in or around nine housing projects in an urban area were administered an anonymous questionnaire. RESULTS. Self-reported use of violence was associated with exposure to violence and personal victimization, hopelessness, depression, family conflict, previous corporal punishment, purpose in life, self-assessment of the probability of being alive at age 25, and age and was higher among males. CONCLUSIONS. These data support the hypothesis that exposure to violence is associated with adolescents' self-reported use of violence. However, adolescents with a higher sense of purpose in life and less depression were better able to withstand the influence of exposure to violence in the home and in the community.

The level of physical activity of 3- and 4-year-old children was assessed in alternative physical locations by month and time of day and by age, gender, and ethnicity. Physical activity was assessed by observation with the Children's Activity Rating Scale (CARS) for up to 12 hours from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm. A sample of 191 three- and four-year-old children was observed for up to four times in the course of a year. The sample was tri-ethnic. Boys were significantly more active than girls. Activity was consistently higher outside than inside. There were significant differences in the amount of time children in this age group spent inside versus outside by time of year; the activity levels of boys and girls differed by time of year, particularly when outside. A model including gender, month, and location terms accounted for 75% of the variance in physical activity. These data further documented gender differences in physical activity among very young children using measures not subject to self-report biases but did not explain or clarify the gender differences. The substantial differences by physical location and time of year deserve future attention, but more refined methods will be needed to balance data by location and important seasonal times. An inference from these results is that activity levels among young children may be increased by encouraging them to spend more time outdoors.

This follow-up investigation examined the relationship among observed time of television watching, physical activity, and body composition in 5- to 6-year-old children previously studied 2 years ago. Activity level on school and nonschool days was measured with the Children’s Activity Rating Scale. Television watching time was assessed by direct observation, and body composition was measured with the body mass index, skinfold thicknesses, and waist/hip ratio. Television watching behavior, which increased from the earlier study, was not associated with body composition. Physical activity was lower during television watching than nontelevision watching time.

A conceptual framework based on social ecology, social learning, and social control theories guided identification of social contexts, contextual attributes, and joint effects that contribute to development of adolescent alcohol misuse. Modeling of alcohol use, suggested by social learning theory, and indicators of the social bond, suggested by social control theory, were examined in the family, peer, school, and neighborhood contexts. Interactions between alcohol modeling and social bond indicators were tested within and between contexts. Data were from a longitudinal study of 6,544 students, 1,663 of their parents, and the U.S. Census. All contexts were uniquely implicated in development of alcohol misuse from ages 11 through 17 years and most alcohol modeling effects were contingent on attributes of social bonds.A social ecological perspective suggests that multiple social contexts and the interdependencies among contexts must be considered in explaining development of adolescent problem behaviors, such as alcohol misuse. While adolescent alcohol use and misuse have been recognized as shaped by social contexts and processes (e.g., Brook, Nomura, & Cohen, 1989;Perry, Kelder, & Komro, 1993;Petraitis, Flay, & Miller, 1995), research on higher level contexts, such as schools and neighborhoods, is less common than research on peer and family contexts. Comprehensive examination of the multiple contexts comprising the social ecology of adolescent alcohol use is even more limited. Explanation for the lack of social ecological research may rest in the magnitude of conceptual and analytic demands when multiple social contexts that are themselves multidimensional are jointly considered.We draw on theories of ecology of human development (Bronfenbrenner, 1977;1979), social learning (Akers, Krohn, Lanza-Kaduce, & Radosevich, 1979; Bandura, 1977;Petraitis et al., 1995), and social control (Hirschi, 1969;Petraitis et al., 1995) to examine development of alcohol misuse in adolescence by specifying a set of social contexts, attributes of those contexts, and interrelations among those attributes to examine. Our purpose is to use these theories to identify a parsimonious set of contextual attributes, while broadly considering the multiple social contexts in which adolescents' lives are embedded, that in interaction with each other could meaningfully explain development of adolescent alcohol misuse. Bronfenbrenner's Ecology of Human Development TheoryBronfenbrenner's theory provides the overarching conceptual framework by establishing a developmental perspective, defining the social contexts for investigation, specifying the need for an inclusive, multidimensional view of these social contexts, and suggesting relationships of the contexts to each other and the developing adolescent. The central precepts of the ecology of human development are that human development takes place Address correspondence to: Susan T. Ennett, Campus Box 7440, Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, The University of North Carolina ...

No abstract