Elahe Nezami

Identification of adolescents at risk for smoking initiation: Validation of a measure of susceptibility☆

Primary prevention of smoking in adolescents requires effective screening instruments for identifying those adolescents who are most likely to experiment with cigarettes. This study investigated the predictive value of a measure of susceptibility to smoking (the lack of a firm commitment not to smoke) for predicting smoking initiation 1 and 2 years later among 687 seventh-grade nonsmokers. Results showed that susceptible adolescents were approximately two to three times more likely to experiment with cigarettes during the ensuing 2 years than were nonsusceptible adolescents. At the lower levels of smoking, these relationships persisted even after controlling for psychosocial variables. Measures of susceptibility to smoking could be an effective tool for identifying adolescents at increased risk of experimenting with cigarettes or assessing their readiness for smoking-prevention programs.

Reasons for Quitting and Smoking Temptation among Adolescent Smokers: Gender Differences

Adolescent cigarette smokers from randomly selected classrooms from 24 California and Illinois high schools were assessed regarding their interest in cessation, reasons for quitting, and smoking temptation circumstances. These data were analyzed by gender. Males and females were not found to differ in quit stage or perceived likelihood of ever quitting smoking, although males reported being somewhat more likely to have ever tried to quit in the past. The associations of reasons for quitting were not found to vary by gender in most comparisons. On the other hand, the associations of smoking temptation circumstances with gender showed that a greater percentage of females than males reported more circumstances that would make them tempted to smoke. Smoking cigarettes to regulate ones affective states, and to avoid nicotine withdrawal, may be functions of smoking that impede efforts at quitting, particularly among adolescent females.

Relaxation, Reduction in Angry Articulated Thoughts, and Improvements in Borderline Hypertension and Heart Rate

An intensive 7-week relaxation therapy was evaluated in a sample of unmedicated borderline hypertensive men. All subjects were provided state-of-the-art medical information regarding changes known to affect hypertension favorably, e.g., lower salt intake and regular exercise. In addition, relaxation subjects were trained in muscle relaxation that entailed audiotaped home practice. As predicted, relaxation combined with hygiene lowered blood pressure more than did hygiene alone. Neither treatment favorably affected a paper-and-pencil measure of anger but relaxation did lower anger-hostility on a new cognitive assessment procedure, Articulated Thoughts in Simulated Situations (ATSS). Moreover, ATSS anger-hostility reduction was correlated with blood pressure or heart rate reductions, for all subjects and especially for those in the Relaxation condition. This represents the first clinically demonstrated link between change in a cognitive variable and change in cardiovascular activity. Finally, results were especially strong in subjects high in norepinephrine, suggesting its importance in essential hypertension.

A Cultural Psychology Approach to “Drug Abuse” Prevention

Much research on the etiology of adolescent drug use has focused on posited risk and protective factors at the level of the individual or small group. However, those proximal influences exist within a cultural context that also influences drug use. To prevent drug use in the diverse population of the United States, research is needed on the influence of the cultural context on adolescent drug use, including the effects of immigrating from one cultural or sociodemographic context to another, as well as the effects of living within two different cultural systems simultaneously. Theoretical models and research methods from cultural psychology and cultural sociology are well-suited to examine the cultural context of drug use. We examine causal mechanisms by which acculturation might affect drug use by using two paradigms to conceptualize culture: a stress/coping paradigm and a cultural values paradigm. Implications of cultural risk and protective factors for transdisciplinary research on drug abuse prevention are also discussed.

Objective Study of Abnormal Personality in Cross-Cultural Settings The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2)

The cross-cultural use of objective instruments to assess personality and psychopathology has increased markedly in recent times. The most widely used clinical personality inventory in international settings is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI/MMPI-2.) The present article describes the procedures characteristically followed by international scholars to adapt the MMPI-2 for their clinical applications. Steps in the translation and adaptation process are described and methods of assuring test equivalence discussed. A number of international MMPI-2-based research programs are highlighted and some limitations to the application of the MMPI-2 in cross-cultural research are noted.

Exploring Peers as a Mediator of the Association Between Depression and Smoking in Young Adolescents

Recent research has suggested that depression causes teens to begin smoking to elevate their mood. Other studies, however, have suggested the reverse causal direction: smoking causes depression. To gain a more complete understanding of the relationship between smoking and depression, potential mediators should be explored. This study explored how peer influences could mediate the relationship between depression and smoking. The methodology of Baron and Kenney was followed to test for mediation and moderation. Peers mediated the relationship between depression and smoking. Separate analyses by gender showed that depression remained significantly associated with smoking when peers were included in the model for girls only. Peer influence was related to depressed affect for both genders. These results provide evidence that peer influences are an important variable to take into consideration when addressing a depression smoking relationship.

The Influence of Depressive Symptoms on Experimental Smoking and Intention to Smoke in a Diverse Youth Sample

Numerous studies have shown associations between smoking and depression, but the generalizability of the relationship across ethnic groups remains unknown. The present study assessed the association between depression and smoking intention and experimentation among adolescents from four ethnic groups in the Los Angeles area-Chinese/Chinese American, Latino/Hispanic, Persian/Iranian, and White. Over 800 7th graders in the Los Angeles area completed measures of depressive symptoms, experimentation with smoking, intention to smoke, and sociodemographic covariates. Chinese/Chinese American students had the lowest levels of depressive symptoms, whereas Latinos/Hispanics had the highest levels. Latinos/Hispanics also were the most likely to intend to smoke in the next year and were the most likely to have started experimenting with cigarette smoking. Depressive symptoms were significantly associated with intention to smoke even after controlling for language use acculturation, socioeconomic status, gender, and ethnicity. The association between depressive symptoms and intention to smoke did not vary significantly across ethnic groups. These results indicate that the association between depressive symptoms and adolescent smoking generalizes across diverse ethnic groups.

Motivation in Tobacco Use Cessation Research

This paper summarizes four major conceptions of motivation that have been applied to cigarette smoking cessation. These conceptions are the direction-energy, transtheoretical, intrinsic/extrinsic, and self-regulation models. Constituents of each of these models are suggested. Implications of these theories of motivation for an integrative model of smoking cessation are discussed.

Mode-specific impact of relaxation training for hypertensive men with type a behavior pattern

Multimodal therapy calls for selection of interventions on the basis of the specific modes of functioning that they are expected to affect. Mode-specificity assumptions were tested in a study of progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) training for type A men with borderline hypertension. It was expected that PMR would be especially effective in reducing psychophysiological reactivity and not effective for hostile cognition or behavioral anger expression. Forty-three subjects were randomly assigned to a control group receiving medical information or to information + PMR. PMR subjects reduced blood pressure reactivity to an anger-instigating role-play more than did controls. Although trait questionnaire measures of hostility and outward anger expression showed no group differences, a think-aloud measure of hostility and an observational measure of anger expression favored PMR. Discussion focuses on alternative explanations for these results, including the possibility that measures failing to show treatment effects were those confounded with negative affectivity.

Articulated thoughts of type A and B individuals in response to social criticism

To explore the hypothesis that individuals with Type A behavior pattern have an underlying sensitivity to social criticism, the Articulated Thoughts in Simulated Situations paradigm was used to examine differences in articulated cognitions between Types A and B individuals in response to simulated taped situations involving social criticism and nonevaluative stress. Individuals with Type B behavior pattern (as measured by the Jenkins Activity Survey) and extreme Type Bs (as measured by the structured interview) engaged in significantly more self-supportive self-talk than Type A individuals in response to social criticism. Types A and B subjects did not differ in their responses to the nonevaluative situation. These findings provide some support for the notion that sensitivity to criticism is a component of Type A. However, the prediction that Type As would respond with more self-deprecating or hostile cognitions than Type Bs was not confirmed.