This paper describes the development and impact of an underage drinking reduction program designed and implemented by a South Carolina county sheriff's office with assistance from the county coalition. In December 2017, high school surveys identified family and friends as the alcohol source 82.2% of the time. In Summer 2018, sheriff deputies began…

Because studies examining youth drug use often have data with a high proportion of zeros, they often do not meet the assumptions for univariate or linear regression analyses that are typically used. We demonstrate the use of zero-inflated negative binomial regression models to address excessive zeros in drug use frequency on perceptions of…

Research has indicated that early sexual intercourse in high school is associated with poor health outcomes such as unintentional pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). What is lacking in the research is an understanding of the relationship between even earlier sexual initiation (i.e., before the age of 13) and alcohol, tobacco, and…

Research findings are inconsistent regarding a positive association between the passage of state medical marijuana laws (MML) and the adolescent access and the use of marijuana. We utilized a novel analytical approach to examine this issue with multiyear data from the 1997-2013 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System of the State of Michigan.…

The present study tested whether playing football or lacrosse in high school is associated with more problematic alcohol use during college compared with playing other sports in high school. A sample of undergraduate males (n = 2,940) in their freshmen year who had played sports in high school completed a web-based questionnaire. Results showed…

Recently, an addiction matrix measure was assessed among U.S. former alternative high school youth. This presentation seeks to examine the generalizability of findings using this measure among Russian and Spanish high school adolescents. Latent class analysis was used to explore addiction subgroups among adolescents in Russia (average age = 16.27;…

The current study analyzes a sample of questions about drugs asked online by youth who participated in the National Institute on Drug Abuse's (NIDA) "Drug Facts Chat Day." The types of drugs youth asked about were coded into 17 substance categories, and the topics they raised were coded into seven thematic categories. The top five…

This study examined relationships between emotional self-efficacy (ESE) and alcohol and tobacco use in a statewide sample of public high school adolescents (n?=?2,566). The Center for Disease Control Youth Risk Behavior Survey and an adolescent ESE scale were utilized. Logistic regression analyses indicated the presence of any significant race by…

Tobacco use is of high prevalence among Spanish adolescents. Programming to counteract tobacco use has been needed. There is a lack of knowledge on the efficacy of teen tobacco use cessation programming. The current study provides an immediate outcome evaluation of the Project EX tobacco use prevention and cessation program among Spanish…

The objective of the present study was to examine the contribution of three intervention components (public commitment, resistance to advertising, and leisure promotion) on alcohol and protective variables in a school-based substance use prevention program. Participants included 480 Spanish students aged from 14 to 16 who received the…

Two online science education games, in which players learn about the risks of prescription drug abuse in the context of investigating crimes, were evaluated to determine shifts of prescription drug abuse attitudes attributable to game exposure. High school students from grades 11 and 12 (n = 179) were assigned to one of the games and participated…

Background: Tobacco use leads to more deaths each year than any other single factor. This research examined teenagers' perceptions of anti-tobacco messages to determine which campaigns and educational approaches were most effective in preventing tobacco use among youth. Methods: Students from five rural high schools in western Pennsylvania were…

The leading substance of misuse among teens after tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana is the use of pain killers. Very few longitudinal studies on prediction of pain killer use have been conducted among teens. This study examined the 1-year prediction of self-reported last 30-day pain killer use controlling for baseline 30-day painkiller use among…

Drinking, smoking, and health risk behaviors are significant problems for Thai adolescents. However, little is known about the association and magnitude among alcohol, tobacco, or co-using and health risk behaviors. Data of the National School Survey of 2007 were analyzed. The sample consisted of 50,033 high school and vocational college students.…

Alcohol expectancies and drinking motives were compared for regular education students (n = 159) and students with emotional/behavioral disorders (EBD) receiving special education services (n = 51). Differences existed between groups with respect to expected negative social consequences and emotional and physical outcomes associated with drinking.…