Paul M. Kingery

Violence and illegal drug use among adolescents: Evidence from the U.S. National Adolescent Student Health Survey

The relationships between violence, drug use, and victimization were examined in a representative sample of American adolescents. The commonly used illegal drugs (marijuana, amyl/butyl nitrites, psychedelics, amphetamines, and cocaine) and alcohol were considered. Drug users, compared to nonusers, fought more, took more risks which predisposed them to assault, and were assaulted more both at school and outside school supervision. Adolescents who were victims at school were also more likely to be victimized outside of school supervision. This study clearly demonstrates that the aggressor may also be the victim, and that illegal drug/alcohol use is related to victimization.

Perceived Risk of Harm from Marijuana Use among Youth in the USA

Perceived risk or beliefs about the harmful effects of drugs is strongly associated with marijuana use, based on nationally representative surveys and several cross-sectional studies in the United States. A review of studies that have examined perceived risk showed that perceived risk can be construed as consisting of at least four areas (physical harm, parental disapproval, peer disapproval and fear of arrest) and having several characteristics (e.g. locus of harm, level of use). Perceptions of risk vary with gender, age and other factors. Secondary data analysis based on the Monitoring the Future surveys and theNational Household Survey ofDrugAbuse were consistent with these findings from the review. Specific recommendations for prevention practitioners and researchers are presented.

Peer Influence and Drug Use among Adolescents in Rural Areas

A sample of 1,004 eighth and tenth grade students in twenty-three small Central/East Texas communities was assessed to determine 1) their perception of the number of their friends who use drugs, 2) the amount of information they received about drugs from their friends, and 3) the connection between those perceptions and drug use. A multiple regression model which included grade, gender, the degree to which friends are perceived to use drugs and the amount of information about drugs received from friends explained 39 percent of the variance in the degree to which rural adolescents were involved in drug use. An item specific analysis of the subcomponents of these composite variables explained 44 percent of the variance in the degree to which rural adolescents were involved in drug use. This same four-factor model accurately classified over 81 percent of non-drug-users and 67 percent of users using discriminant analysis. Students who perceived a higher degree of drug use among their friends and who received more information about drugs from their friends used drugs more frequently. Lower marijuana use in these rural areas as compared to the nation, both as a peer perception and as a fact, may protect these students to a degree from broader patterns of drug use. The findings of this study support the theory that peer pressure is related to drug abuse, even in rural areas.

Risk Factors for Violent Behaviors among Ethnically Diverse Urban Adolescents Beyond Race/Ethnicity

The higher rate ofjuvenile homicide among African-American males than among white males has led many to the assumption that blacks are more violent than whites and other racial/ethnic groups. The present study examines that hypothesis in the context of 3955 inner-city Miami boys who were surveyed over a three-year period from grades 6 and 7 to grades 8 and 9. Concurrent risk factors were more predictive than prospective risk factors in relation to self-reported violence in grades 8 and 9. A variety of familial, psychosocial, sociocultural and school-based risk factors for violence were examined. These included race/ethnicity, normative values, derogation (from self, teachers and parents), cocaine and crack use, marital and educational status of parents, grade in school, beliefs (on several levels) and behaviors (delinquency, response to anger, etc). Gun carrying at school was only slightly more prevalent among American blacks (6% for the partial school term) than among whites (4%) and boys of other races. White boys were more likely to carry knives than American blacks. Using a composite of violent behavior, no single racial group was more violent than another (F = .508,p = .83). Haitians, Caribbean blacks and Nicaraguans were more likely to be involved in gangs than other groups. Normlessness, low empathy, stealing, law-breaking and wanting to quit school and leave home function as a constellation of risk factors that appear to increase the likelihood of weapon carrying and interpersonal violence regardless of race/ethnicity. Other risk factors vary by race/culture group.

Sources of drug information among adolescent students

A sample of 1023 eighth and tenth grade students in small to medium-sized central Texas school districts was assessed to determine the amount of information they receive from ten sources about six categories of drugs. The amount of information males reported receiving about each drug category was significantly greater than what females reported, and the amount of information that eighth graders reported receiving about each drug category was significantly greater than what tenth graders reported. Television was the primary source of drug information for all categories of drugs except inhalants, for which friends and television were equally important sources. Parents and printed media (magazines or newspapers) were of secondary importance, followed by friends and teachers. Adolescents were less likely to receive drug-related information from experience, siblings, church, doctors, and police. The reliance on the mass media for drag information in smaller school districts is a pattern which has been previously observed in larger urban districts. This consistency suggests that mass media approaches to drug education are likely to be as effective in rural areas and smaller towns as they are among urban adolescents. Implications for television programming are discussed.

Risk Factors for Adolescent Violence The Importance of Vulnerability

Violence as a function of vulnerability and delinquency was examined in a sample of 2066 ninth-graders. Vulnerability was examined by several proxy measures (being hit, attacked, or touched inappropriately at school; being exposed to weapons at school; the absence of the father from the home; and mothers educational attainment). Violence was a composite measure of the frequency of hitting a student, hitting or shoving a teacher, carrying a weapon at school, group fighting, and armed robbery. Vulnerability indicators explained 48% of the variance in violence in the first step of a hierarchical multiple regression analysis. Delinquency measures (crime involvement, punishment at school, and drug involvement) and attitudes toward school increased the explained variance to 74%. Vulnerability is posited as a potential central mechanism for the development of violent behavior. Prospective study of this mechanism is recommended.

High-cost analysis : a closer look at the case for work-site health promotion

Studies linking medical costs to behavioral risk and risk-lowering often use means for comparisons, although claims data are highly skewed. The result overestimates and obscures the case for work-site health promotion. In this study, high-cost analysis is illustrated in a sample of university employees. Five risk factors were examined: cholesterol, blood pressure, cardiovascular fitness, body fat, and smoking status. Screened employees who released their claims (n = 367) were examined against a random sample of employees (n = 587). Linear regression was used to determine the risk of having high claims costs within four gender-specific age groups. A formula was then applied to determine that more than 43% of the cost of medical claims was associated with elevated risk. High-cost analysis accounts for the skewness in claims data and presents a clear case for work-site health promotion.

Violence in Rural Schools An Emerging Problem near the United States-Mexico Border

Often considered largely an urban problem, school violence has been found to be unusually high in rural schools near the US-Mexico border. Beyond being a social problem and a public health problem, school violence is an educational problem, limiting the ability of students to learn. Seventh through twelfth graders (n = 2,746) in thirty-eight rural school districts were surveyed regarding their involvement in school violence and victimization. More than half of the boys had fought with fists or weapons in the past year at school. More than half of the boys had carried a knife at school. Eighteen percent of fifteen to seventeen year old boys had carried a handgun at school. In the past year 16 percent of students had been robbed, 37 percent had been threatened, and 15 percent had been attacked (often repeatedly) while at school. Ten percent had someone try to force them to have sex against their will while at school. A constellation of factors was found to be related to involvement in school violence. These provided the basis for recommended prevention strategies.

An Investigation of the Factor Structure of the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scales in a Health Promotion Program

The Multidimensional Health Locus of Control (MHLC) Scales have been used both to evaluate program effects and to assign subjects to optimal treatment modalities. The MHLC Scales were designed to measure three theoretical dimensions of health locus of control, as represented by the scale names: (a) Chance, (b) Internal, and (c) Powerful Others. The construct validity of scores from the scales when the measure is used with adults was explored using factor analytic methods. Subjects were 692 adults seeking voluntary health promotion services. Overall, the results supported the hypothesized three-factor structure of the measure.

The Adolescent Violence Survey A Psychometric Analysis

The research on youth violence and its prevention has been hampered by the lack of adequate scales to measure violence. The Adolescent Violence Survey was designed to fill that need. The Survey provides a 41-item violence scale with six subscales. The psychometric properties of the Survey were investigated in a sample of 1374 8th and 9th graders in a central US city of moderate size. The broader violence scale had an internal consistency of .95 (Cronbachs alpha) and a testretest reliability of .91 (Pearson r) over a 1-week period. Subscales include severe menacing, menacing language, inventive violence, common violence, impulsive violence, and passive aggression. All subscales were found to have stable factor structures, high internal consistency, test-retest reliability, construct validity, and approximately normal distributions. Demographic variables, violence-related attitudes, and broader patterns of delinquency explained 69 percent of the variance in the violence composite in a stepwise multiple regression analysis. The six violence subscales were found to represent a typology of violence styles distinguishable by their relationships to predictor variables. These differences yielded several hypotheses for future research. The Adolescent Violence Survey is recommended for the measurement of relatively common lowto moderate-level violent behaviors within the general population of middle-school and high-school aged youth.