Journal of Drug Education: Substance Use Research and Prevention

Direct and mediating effects of mechanisms hypothesized to account for the association between parental problem drinking and later problem drinking by offspring were investigated. Specifically, a “negative affect” submodel was proposed in which family environment, self-esteem, alienation, likelihood of attaining valued goals, psychopathology, and drinking motives would all mediate the parental-problem-drinking to offspring-problem-drinking relationship. Subjects were 350 female and 300 male, eighteen to twenty-three year-old undergraduates. Multivariate analyses of variance revealed differences in a majority of study variables between subjects with and without a family history of parental problem drinking. Structural equation modeling identified associations separately for paternal and maternal problem drinking and offspring alcohol use. Direct and mediating effects were tested with path analysis separately for male and female respondents. Both parents' drinking affected later problematic alcohol use by offspring. The opposite-sexed parents' drinking had a more negative influence on subjects' self-perception. For both men and women, parental problem drinking reduced adaptive family functioning, which was subsequently linked to problem personality characteristics, more personal drinking motives, and greater alcohol involvement. Specific mediating mechanisms varied between models for each sex. Implications regarding these models are discussed.

Caffeine consumption, a ubiquitous cultural phenomenon with significant health implications may be governed by some of the same principles which affect other drug use [1]. We hypothesized that pharmacological and expectancy effects may be two of those principles. A balanced placebo design was used with 100 male undergraduates to separate caffeine's active drug effects from the expectancy of having consumed caffeine on mood, performance, and physiological measures. The manipulation of expectancies was highly effective on subjects' judgments of caffeine dosage, regardless of actual caffeine content. As predicted, expectancy set and caffeine content appeared equally powerful, and worked additively, to affect subjects' ratings of how much the coffee influenced their mood and performance. Main effects on systolic and diastolic blood pressure, pulse rate, and a fatigue measure were found for caffeine vs. no caffeine groups only. Additional increases in diastolic blood pressure for smokers were noted within the caffeine-receiving conditions. Results are discussed with heuristic and health implications.

The authors examined the relationship of two dimensions of the theory of social development—vulnerability (predictors, risk factors) and protectivity—in two samples, schoolchildren aged ten to fifteen years and addictive drug users. On the basis of the Hirschi model of protective factors, they found that the most important protective factors (attachment, commitment, involvement, belief) act against substance use. A surprising finding was that among the predictors of the addicts some forms of escape from the family act against the development of drug use, that is, they can be regarded as a protective predictor. The findings of the study draw attention to the complexity of the vulnerability-protectivity relationship and to the need for further research.

This study examined the relationship between middle school/junior high student latchkey status and early experimentation and use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. Students were queried about the frequency (number of times per week) and quantity (number of hours per day) of unsupervised after school days in an average week. Questions were also asked regarding their experiences with “gateway” drugs, inhalants, and steroids. Chi square analysis was used to test the strength of association. The results of this study indicated that latchkey youth (LKY) who were home alone two or more days per week were four times more likely to have gotten drunk in the past month than those youth who had parental supervision five or more times a week. Also, significant differences were observed for LKY with respect to cigarette smoking, inhalants, and marijuana use. Other findings and demographic variables were discussed as they pertain to LKY as well as suggested strategies for healthy self-care alternatives.

Over 900 students in the rural northwest at the fourth, sixth, eighth, and tenth grade levels were surveyed for alcohol and drug use. The survey instrument measured self-reported usage of seventeen substances. The descriptive statistical results are reported by gender as well as grade-level usage rates. Discussion includes targeting drug prevention programs for specific grade and gender levels based upon the results.

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a parent-child drug education program. One thousand four hundred and forty-seven fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students and 2,036 of their parents participated in the study. Results indicated that the program produced changes in the responses of children and their parents to questions concerning attitudes, use, perceptions of use, and intended use of drugs.

This research uses the concept of cross pressures, a concept created to explain political behavior, to predict the frequency of adolescent alcohol, cigarette, and drug use. Using a population of eighth, tenth, and twelfth graders from 207 Michigan public school districts, respondents reported their frequency of alcohol, cigarette, and drug use for thirty days and one year prior to the survey. They also reported their perception of friends' approval/disapproval of substance use, peer pressure to use, and their assessment of risk of use. Cross pressure patterns are created from these three variables and used to predict frequency of substance use. In addition to descriptive data and associations between independent and dependent variables, the findings show the patterns and extent of cross pressures to be highly predictive of frequency of substance use. The implications for understanding adolescent substance use and for educational programs are noted.