H. Harrington Cleveland

The Moderation of Adolescent-to-Peer Similarity in Tobacco and Alcohol Use by School Levels of Substance Use.

Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study examined the impact of school-level smoking and drinking on adolescent-peer similarity for smoking and drinking. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed that adolescent-peer similarity was significantly moderated by school-level substance use for both tobacco and alcohol use. For tobacco, similarity between adolescent and peer use increased from .18 in the lower quartile of tobacco-using schools to .44 in the upper quartile of tobacco-using schools. Corresponding similarities for alcohol use ranged from .25 to .34. These results suggest that schools with relatively few substance-using peers provide less opportunities for adolescents to pick niches that expose them to risk factors that correspond to their own substance-use behaviors.

Does the Effect of Impulsivity on Delinquency Vary by Level of Neighborhood Disadvantage

The authors examine the importance of the person-context nexus in adolescent deviance. Using the nationally representative National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) data set of more than 20, 000 male and female adolescents, the authors are interested in testing whether the relationship between impulsivity and a variety of deviance measures varies as a function of neighborhood disadvantage. Results suggest that whereas levels of impulsivity and deviance vary by level of neighborhood disadvantage, relationships between impulsivity and deviance do not. This same finding is made for both male and female study participants, though there is some modest evidence of moderation in female youth. Together, these results have important implications for social disorganization theory, the general theory of crime, and for personality research on the etiology of crime and deviance.

Disadvantaged Neighborhoods and Adolescent Aggression: Behavioral Genetic Evidence of Contextual Effects

This study used behavioral genetic methods to examine differences in genetic and environmental influences on adolescent aggression across adequate and disadvantaged neighborhoods. Analyses used National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health data from 2,342 monozygotic twin, dizygotic twin, full-sibling, and half-sibling pairs classified into structurally adequate and disadvantaged neighborhoods according to Census data on the proportion of single-parent households with children, proportion of families in poverty, and unemployment levels in sibling pairs’ block groups. Separately estimating genetic and environmental influences across adequate and disadvantaged neighborhoods revealed that although genetic influences are significant in both adequate and disadvantaged neighborhoods, shared environmental influences (e.g., family influences shared by siblings) were significant only among adolescents from disadvantaged neighborhoods. These results provide insight into differences in individual-level influences that contribute to adolescent aggression within these different types of neighborhoods. Significant shared environmental influences in disadvantaged neighborhoods suggest the importance of family processes is increased by neighborhood disadvantage. Adolescent aggression tends to concentrate in disadvantaged neighborhoods (Sampson, 1997). This concentration is very costly. High levels of adolescent aggression can cause neighborhood businesses to struggle and

The Influence of Female and Male Risk on the Occurrence of Sexual Intercourse Within Adolescent Relationships

This study uses the characteristics of male and female partners within adolescent relationship pairs drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to predict the occurrence of intercourse within relationships. Most analyses are based on a sample of 724 relationship pairs. The sample was ethnically diverse: 56% White, 20% Black, 14% Hispanic, and 10% Asian, Pacific Islander, or Other. Male partners on average were 17.5 years in age and females were 17.0. Predictors of intercourse included virginity status when entering the relationships, desire to have sex early in relationships, family- and school-related risk indicators, attitudes regarding the pros and cons of having sex, and other risk indicators, such as delinquency and drinking. Findings demonstrate that the characteristics of both sexes influence intercourse occurrence within relationships.

School Achievement Differences among Chinese and Filipino American Students: Acculturation and the Family.

The general belief that Asian American adolescents are successful has led researchers to ignore variations in Asian adolescents’ academic success. Using samples of Chinese and Filipino adolescents drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study examined whether differences between these two groups in acculturation, parent–adolescent attachment, and parental school involvement could account for academic achievement differences. Results revealed that Chinese adolescents generally performed better in school than their Filipino counterparts. Factors that predicted academic achievement were ethnicity, acculturation, and parents’ academic involvement. An interaction was found between ethnicity and acculturation, indicating that acculturation is a predictor of academic performance among Filipino youth but not among Chinese youth. Cultural values in parent–adolescent attachment, acculturation, and parents’ school involvement are discussed.

Identifying gender-specific developmental trajectories of nonviolent and violent delinquency from adolescence to young adulthood.

Most research examining gender differences in developmental trajectories of antisocial behavior does not consider subtypes of antisocial behavior and is difficult to generalize due to small non-representative samples. The current study investigated gender difference in developmental trajectories from adolescence to young adulthood while addressing those limitations. Analyses were limited to respondents ages 15 and 16 in wave 1 (16-17 in wave 2, and 21-22 in wave 3) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (n = 6244, 49.5% males). Self-report nonviolent and violent delinquencies were simultaneously entered into latent class analysis. Four latent classes were identified: low, desister, decliner, and chronic (male-only). In addition to finding a male-specific chronic class, gender differences included differences in levels of nonviolent and violent delinquency between synonymous classes of males and females, and differences in prevalence of classes across genders. Neighborhood disadvantage and family support predicted trajectories.

The conditioning of intervention effects on early adolescent alcohol use by maternal involvement and dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) and serotonin transporter linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR) genetic variants.

Data drawn from the in-home subsample of the PROSPER intervention dissemination trial were used to investigate the moderation of intervention effects on underage alcohol use by maternal involvement and candidate genes. The primary gene examined was dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4). Variation in this gene and maternal involvement were hypothesized to moderate the influence of intervention status on alcohol use. The PROSPER data used were drawn from 28 communities randomly assigned to intervention or comparison conditions. Participating youth were assessed in five in-home interviews from sixth to ninth grades. A main effect of sixth-grade pretest maternal involvement on ninth-grade alcohol use was found. Neither intervention status nor DRD4 variation was unconditionally linked to ninth-grade drinking. However, moderation analyses revealed a significant three-way interaction among DRD4 status, maternal involvement, and intervention condition. Follow-up analyses revealed that prevention reduced drinking risk, but only for youth with at least one DRD4 seven-repeat allele who reported average or greater pretest levels of maternal involvement. To determine if this conditional pattern was limited to the DRD4 gene, we repeated analyses using the serotonin transporter linked polymorphic region site near the serotonin transporter gene. The results for this supplemental analysis revealed a significant three-way interaction similar but not identical to that found for DRD4.

An Idiographic Examination of Day-to-Day Patterns of Substance Use Craving, Negative Affect, and Tobacco Use among Young Adults in Recovery.

Psychological constructs, such as negative affect and substance use cravings that closely predict relapse, show substantial intraindividual day-to-day variability. This intraindividual variability of relevant psychological states combined with the “one day at a time” nature of sustained abstinence warrant a day-to-day investigation of substance use recovery. This study examines day-to-day associations among substance use cravings, negative affect, and tobacco use among 30 college students in 12-step recovery from drug and alcohol addictions. To account for individual variability in day-to-day process, it applies an idiographic approach. The sample of 20 males and 10 females (mean age = 21) was drawn from members of a collegiate recovery community at a large university. Data were collected with end-of-day data collections taking place over an average of 26.7 days. First-order vector autoregression models were fit to each individual predicting daily levels of substance use cravings, negative affect, and tobacco use from the same 3 variables 1 day prior. Individual model results demonstrated substantial interindividual differences in intraindividual recovery process. Based on estimates from individual models, cluster analyses were used to group individuals into 2 homogeneous subgroups. Group comparisons demonstrate distinct patterns in the day-to-day associations among substance use cravings, negative affect, and tobacco use, suggesting the importance of idiographic approaches to recovery management and that the potential value of focusing on negative affect or tobacco use as prevention targets depends on idiosyncratic processes.

Individual Variation and Family-Community Ties: A Behavioral Genetic Analysis of the Intergenerational Closure in the Lives of Adolescents.

Intergenerational closure refers to parents’ knowing the parents of their adolescents’ friends. This study treated intergenerational closure—as reported by the parents of adolescent twins—as the dependent variable in a behavioral genetic analysis. The sample consisted of identical and fraternal twin pairs in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Models that were fit to twin covariance matrices estimated that additive genetic influences accounted for 44% of the variance in intergenerational closure and shared environmental influences for 44%. These findings provide evidence that the heritable characteristics of adolescents influence the connections between their families and their extrafamilial social networks.

Collegiate Recovery Communities: What They Are and How They Support Recovery

Nearly 2 million American men and women are annually treated for substance abuse (SAMHSA, 2002). Unfortunately, as most substance abuse patients will relapse within a year or even within the first few months (Weisner, Matzger, & Kaskutas, 2002; Bond, Kaskutas, & Weisner, 2003), it is clear that treatment alone does not translate into long-term abstinence. What appears to help many but certainly not all of those wishing to remain abstinent is affiliating with mutual help support groups, such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) or Narcotics Anonymous (NA) (Emrick, Tonigan, Montgomery, & Little, 1993; Tonigan, Miller, & Connors, 2000; Tonigan, Tocova, & Miller, 1996).