|
New this Month - May 2006
Below are citations/abstracts of recently published articles and publications
that have been authored and/or co-authored by Pacific Institute staff.
Berkeley
Genevieve Ames
McCrady, B. S., Zucker, R. A., Molina, B. S. G., Ammon, L., Ames, G.
M., & Longabaugh, R. (2006). Social environmental influences on the
development and resolution of alcohol problems. Alcoholism, Clinical and
Experimental Research, 30(4), 688-699.
This article summarizes the proceedings of a symposium presented at the
2005 Annual Meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism, Santa Barbara,
California, June 25-30. The overall goal of the symposium was to consider
the broad impact of the social environment on the development of and successful
or unsuccessful resolution of drinking problems. The presentations addressed
multiple social environmental influences including: the influence of children
on parents (Dr. Zucker), the influence of peers and parents on adolescents
(Dr. Molina), the influence of family members on adult drinking (Dr. McCrady),
the influence of adult peers/friends (Dr. Kaskutas), and the influence
of the occupational environment (Dr. Ames). Dr. Longabaugh, the symposium
discussant, addressed models for understanding the relationships between
social influences and drinking problems.
Meng-Jinn Chen, Brenda Miller, Joel Grube, & Elizabeth Waiters
Chen, M.-J., Miller, B. A., Grube, J. W., & Waiters, E. D. (2006).
Music, substance use, and aggression. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 67(3),
373-381.
OBJECTIVE: This study investigated whether young people's substance use
and aggressive behaviors are related to their listening to music containing
messages of substance use and violence. METHOD: Using self-administered
questionnaires, data were collected from a sample of community-college
students, ages 15-25 years (N=1056; 57% female). A structural equation
model (maximum likelihood method) was used to simultaneously assess the
associations between listening to various genres of music and students'
alcohol use, illicit-drug use, and aggressive behaviors. Respondents'
age, gender, race/ethnicity, and level of sensation seeking were included
in the analyses as control variables. RESULTS: Listening to rap music
was significantly and positively associated with alcohol use, problematic
alcohol use, illicit-drug use, and aggressive behaviors when all other
variables were controlled. In addition, alcohol and illicit-drug use were
positively associated with listening to musical genres of techno and reggae.
Control variables (e.g., sensation seeking, age, gender and race/ethnicity)
were significantly related to substance use and aggressive behaviors.
CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that young people's substance use and
aggressive behaviors may be related to their frequent exposure to music
containing references to substance use and violence. Music listening preference,
conversely, may reflect some personal predispositions or lifestyle preferences.
There is also the possibility that substance use, aggression, and music
preference are independent constructs that share common "third factors".
Paul Gruenewald, Bridget Freisthler, Lillian Remer, & Andrew
Treno
Gruenewald, P. J., Freisthler, B., Remer, L., Lascala, E. A., & Treno,
A. (2006). Ecological models of alcohol outlets and violent assaults:
crime potentials and geospatial analysis. Addiction, 101(5), 666-677.
Aims: Empirical tests of relationships between alcohol outlets and violence
are generally conducted with statistical controls for correlates related
to characteristics of people and the places in which they live. Crime
potentials theory asserts that certain subpopulations are disposed to
participate in criminal activities (population potentials) and certain
neighborhoods are more likely to be places where crimes occur (place potentials).
The current study assesses the degree to which measures of the different
geographic distributions of these potentials contribute to violent crime.
Design Cross-sectional data on hospital discharges for violent assaults
were obtained for residents of 1637 zip code areas in California. Assault
rates were related to measures of population and place characteristics
using spatial statistical models corrected for spatial autocorrelated
error. Findings Rates of assault were related to population and place
characteristics within zip code areas, and with characteristics of populations
living in adjacent zip code areas. Assault rates were greater in densely
populated, poor minority urban areas with greater residential instability.
Assault rates were also greater in zip code areas adjacent to densely
populated urban areas. Assault rates were related significantly to local
densities of off-premise alcohol retail establishments, not bars. However,
densities of bars moderated substantially effects related to local population
characteristics. Bars were related significantly to violence in unstable
poor minority areas and in rural middle-income areas of the state. Conclusion:
Population and place characteristics are associated with rates of violence
across spatial areas. Alcohol outlets directly affect and moderate potentials
for violence associated with socio-demographic groups.
Brenda Miller
Hequembourg, A., Mancuso, R., & Miller, B. (2006). A comparative
study examining associations between women's drug-related lifestyle factors
and victimization within the family. Violence and Victims, 21(2), 231-246.
This study explores and compares the interrelationships between lifespan
childhood and adult partner victimization and the drug lifestyles for
609 women, aged 18-65, from a drug-treatment sample, a women's domestic
violence shelter sample, and community samples matched with the drug-treatment
and shelter samples. Significant findings indicate that lifespan childhood
and adult partner victimization were the strongest predictors of women's
drug-related lifestyle activities. Three proposed hypotheses were supported
to suggest that an association exists between the respondents' lifespan
childhood and partner victimization scores and drug-related lifestyle
activities scores, with these relationships modified by intervening variables,
such as age, marital status, partner substance use, and parental substance
use. Findings also indicate significant differences among the four sample
groups in terms of victimization and drug-related lifestyle factors. Implications,
limitations, and areas for future research are discussed.
Marcia Russell
Fan, A. Z., Russell, M., Dorn, J., Freudenheim, J. L., Nochajski, T.,
Hovey, K., & Trevisan, M. (2006). Lifetime alcohol drinking pattern
is related to the prevalence of metabolic syndrome. The Western New York
Health Study (WNYHS). European Journal of Epidemiology, 21(2), 129-138.
The association of lifetime alcohol drinking pattern with the prevalence
of the metabolic syndrome is largely unknown. Analyses were conducted
on a population-based sample in a cross-sectional study (N=2818, ages
35-79 years, 93% whites). Included were subjects who drank at least once
a month for a period of at least six months during their lifetimes and
were free of cardiovascular disease and cancer at the time of interview.
Lifetime drinking measures included total years of drinking, total drinking
days, volume (total drinks) and average intensity (#drinks/drinking day);
frequency of intoxication and heavy drinking; and age drinking began and
ended. Metabolic syndrome components included impaired fasting glucose
(IFG), high triglycerides (HTG), low HDL cholesterol (LHDLC), abdominal
obesity (ABO), and hypertension (HBP). Potential confounders examined
were age, gender, race, family history of coronary heart disease or diabetes,
years of education, lifetime and current cigarette smoking, current drinking
status, physical activity, and dietary factors. Multiple logistic regressions
indicated that average intensity was directly related to IFG, HTG, HBP,
and metabolic syndrome overall (p for linear trend=0.03, 0.04, 0.003,
and 0.009, respectively) and to ABO in women only (p for trend=0.0004).
Prevalence ratios (95% CI) for the metabolic syndrome according to quartiles
of intensity were 1.00 (lowest), 1.23 (0.91-1.67), 1.43 (1.06-1.91) and
1.60 (1.12-2.30). Total drinking days was inversely related to LHDLC (p
for trend=0.0002) and to ABO in women only (p for trend<0.0001). It
is concluded that lifetime drinking patterns are significantly related
to the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome.
Calverton
Mark Johnson
Lange, J. E., Johnson, M. B., & Reed, M. B. (2006). Drivers within
natural drinking groups: An exploration of role selection, motivation,
and group Influence on driver sobriety. The American Journal of Drug and
Alcohol Abuse, 32(2), 261-274.
Young people consume alcohol almost exclusively in social contexts, but
natural drinking group dynamics are poorly understood. Our research focuses
on the drivers' role within natural drinking groups. We conducted breath-test
surveys of existing groups of young people at the US/Mexico border crossing
before they headed to Tijuana bars, and surveyed them again upon their
return. Results indicated an individual's perception of other group member's
drinking plans predicts drinking intentions to a greater degree for passengers
than drivers. Additionally, drivers who anticipated heavy drinking among
other group members returned to the United States with BACs nearly identical
to drivers who reported that other group members would not drink at all.
This suggests drivers were resistant to normative pressures to drink.
Evidence that group-dynamic variables may impact drinking behavior underscores
the importance of systematic exploration of natural drinking groups. Furthermore,
the knowledge gleaned from studying the dynamics and decision making processes
of natural drinking groups could be used to design intervention designed
to increase designated driver use and to reduce drinking among designated
drivers.
Eduardo Romano, Bob Voas, & Scott Tippets
Romano, E. O., Voas, R. B., & Tippets, A. S. (2006). Language, income,
education, and alcohol-related fatal motor vehicle crashes. Journal of
Ethnicity in Substance Abuse, 5(2), 119-137.
This paper investigates the role of race/ethnicity, language skills (a
proxy for acculturation among Hispanics in Arizona, California, NewMexico,
and Texas), income, and education level on alcohol-related fatal motor
vehicle crashes. Using the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS),
we confirmed previous state-based studies showing that high income and
education levels have a protective influence on alcohol-related fatal
motor vehicle crashes. We also confirmed that language proficiency/ acculturation
tends to increase the vulnerability of Hispanic women to alcohol-related
fatalities. Differences in alcohol-related fatality rates across Hispanic
subgroups are observed. Future reductions in alcohol- related traffic
fatalities may require prevention policies that take into account existent
variations in acculturation, income, and education among racial/ethnic
groups and subgroups.
Bob Voas
Clapp, J. D., Reed, M. B., Holmes, M. R., Lange, J. E., & Voas,
R. B. (2006). Drunk in public, drunk in private: the relationship between
college students, drinking environments and alcohol consumption. The American
Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 32(2), 275-285.
This study examines environmental differences in public (bars) and private
(parties) drinking settings among of-age (21 and up years of age) and
underage (18-20 years of age) college students attending college near
the US/Mexico border. A random telephone survey of graduate and undergraduate
students attending two large public universities in the southwestern United
States was conducted during the 2000-2003 academic years. A university-based
social science research laboratory conducted the telephone interviews
with respondents who reported an occasion in the past 28 days where alcohol
was being consumed (N = 4,964). The data were analyzed using ordinary
least squares multiple regression. The results suggests that drinking
settings contributed to the amount of alcohol consumed by respondents.
Additionally, environmental factors contributing to drinking vary by setting.
In general, having many people intoxicated at an event, BYOB parties,
playing drinking games, and having illicit drugs available contribute
to heavier drinking.
Sandra Putnam
Rockett, I. R. H., Putnam, S. L., Jia, H., & Smith, G. S. (2006).
Declared and undeclared substance use among emergency department patients:
a population-based study. Addiction, 101(5), 706-712.
Aims: To estimate both self-reported and corrected prevalences of substance
use in a population-based study of general hospital emergency department
(ED) patients and predict undeclared use. Design A state-wide cross-sectional,
two-stage probability sample survey that incorporates toxicological screening.
Setting Seven Tennessee EDs in acute care, adult, civilian, non-psychiatric
hospitals. Participants A total of 1502 Tennessee residents, 18 years
of age and older, possessing intact cognition, able to give informed consent
and not in police custody. Measurements Prevalence of self-reported current
substance use by age, sex and type with correction for under-reporting
based on toxicological screening. Covariates in the multivariate analysis
of undeclared use were socio-demographics, ED visit circumstances, health-care
coverage, prior health status and treatment history and tobacco addiction.
Findings Declared current use was highest for alcohol (females 26%, males
47%), marijuana (males 11%, females 6%) and benzodiazepines (females 10%,
males 7%). After correction for under-reporting, overall use for any of
the eight targeted substances rose from 44% to 56% for females and 61%
to 69% for males. Largest absolute changes involved opioids, benzodiazepines,
marijuana, amphetamines and/or methamphetamine, with little change for
alcohol. Patients aged 65 years and older manifested excess undeclared
use relative to patients aged 18–24 years, as did patients
not reporting tobacco addiction or receiving substance abuse treatment.
Conclusion: Adjustment for under-reporting produced minimal change in
the estimated prevalence of alcohol use. However, toxicological screening
markedly increased estimates of other drug use, especially for the elderly,
who may under-report medication use. Screening tests are useful tools
for detecting undeclared substance use.
Chapel Hill
Christine Jackson
Brown, J. D., L'Engle, K. L., Pardun, C. J., Guo, G., Kenneavy, K., &
Jackson, C. (2006). Sexy media matter: Exposure to sexual content in music,
movies, television, and magazines predicts black and white adolescents'
sexual behavior. Pediatrics, 117(4), 1018-1027.
OBJECTIVE. To assess over time whether exposure to sexual content in 4
mass media (television, movies, music, and magazines) used by early adolescents
predicts sexual behavior in middle adolescence. METHODS. An in-home longitudinal
survey of 1017 black and white adolescents from 14 middle schools in central
North Carolina was conducted. Each teen was interviewed at baseline when
he or she was 12 to 14 years old and again 2 years later using a computer-assisted
self interview (audio computer-assisted self-interview) to ensure confidentiality.
A new measure of each teen's sexual media diet (SMD) was constructed by
weighting the frequency of use of 4 media by the frequency of sexual content
in each television show, movie, music album, and magazine the teen used
regularly. RESULTS. White adolescents in the top quintile of sexual media
diet when 12 to 14 years old were 2.2 times more likely to have had sexual
intercourse when 14 to 16 years old than those who were in the lowest
SMD quintile, even after a number of other relevant factors, including
baseline sexual behavior, were introduced. The relationship was not statistically
significant for black adolescents after controlling for other factors
that were more predictive, including parental disapproval of teen sex
and perceived permissive peer sexual norms. CONCLUSIONS. Exposure to sexual
content in music, movies, television, and magazines accelerates white
adolescents' sexual activity and increases their risk of engaging in early
sexual intercourse. Black teens appear more influenced by perceptions
of their parents' expectations and their friends' sexual behavior than
by what they see and hear in the media.
Download this Document 
|
