Sarah E. Nelson

The family check-up with high-risk young adolescents: Preventing early-onset substance use by parent monitoring *

The Family Check-Up (FCU) is a brief, family-centered intervention focused on family-management practices. Within the context of a randomly assigned, multilevel family intervention, high-risk youth and families (n = 71) were selected for video-taped home observation that includes an interaction task assessing parent monitoring. Parents in the intervention group were offered annual feedback on the yearly assessment, including their home observation. Using an intention-to-treat design, analyses revealed intervention effects on early-adolescent substance use and observed parent monitoring by the first year of high school (Year 4 of follow-up). As in previous research, parents of high-risk adolescents were observed to decrease monitoring from grades 7 to 9. However, families randomly assigned to the family intervention maintained their monitoring practices. Regression analyses revealed the prevention effect of the FCU on substance use was mediated by changes in parental monitoring. Findings suggest the promise of linking developmental theory with innovation in cognitive behavioral intervention and prevention.

Preventing Early Adolescent Substance Use: A Family-Centered Strategy for the Public Middle School

The Adolescent Transitions Program (ATP) promotes student adjustment and reduces risk within a public school setting, focusing primarily on parenting practices using a tiered, multilevel prevention strategy. A description is given of the program, levels of engagement, and intervention effects. Within each school, multiethnic students (N = 672) and their families were randomly assigned at the individual level to a control condition or the ATP intervention. Analyses focus on the longitudinal effects of the ATP intervention on self-reported substance use through middle school and the 1st year of high school (Grades 6, 7, 8, and 9). Levels of engagement in the selected and indicated interventions were somewhat less than expected. Despite relatively low levels of engagement, the intervention reduced initiation of substance use in both at-risk and typically developing students. These findings are discussed with respect to lessons learned about parent engagement, optimizing strategies for schoolwide implementation, and the promise of embedding family interventions within the public school ecology.

The Road Less Travelled: Moving From Distribution to Determinants in the Study of Gambling Epidemiology

This article reviews the current status of gambling epidemiology studies and suggests that it is time to move from general population-prevalence research toward the investigation of risk and protective factors that influence the onset of gambling disorders. The study of incidence among vulnerable and resilient populations is a road yet to be taken. In this review, we briefly introduce the history of the field and thoroughly review the epidemiologic research on disordered gambling before providing a critical assessment of the current diagnostic tools. Overall, the extant research shows that disordered gambling is a relatively stable phenomenon throughout the world. Given that certain segments of the population (for example, adolescents and substance users) have elevated prevalence rates, we suggest focusing future prevalence studies on groups with apparently increased vulnerability. Moreover, we suggest that, for the field of gambling studies to progress, researchers need to take the road less travelled and examine more carefully the onset and determinants of disordered gambling. That said, given the problems with the current diagnostic screens, investigators need to refine their theoretical concepts and the epidemiologic tools used to examine them before the field can travel down this new road.

Adolescent Friendship as a Dynamic System: Entropy and Deviance in the Etiology and Course of Male Antisocial Behavior.

A dynamic systems framework was applied to understand the influence of friendship on antisocial behavior from childhood (age 9–10) through adulthood (age 24–25) for Oregon Youth Study males (N = 206). Boys were videotaped interacting with a friend at ages 14, 16, and 18, and deviant content and interpersonal processes were independently coded. Conditional dyadic interpersonal processes were studied as a communication system and summarized by an index of information entropy (F. Attneave, 1959). High entropy scores represent disorganized, unpredictable patterns of interaction, whereas low entropy scores reflect an organized dialogue. Conversations of early-onset antisocial boys and their best friends were less organized and included more deviant content than those of well-adjusted controls. Prediction analyses, however, revealed an interaction between entropy and deviant talk. Consistent with expectation, males with well-organized interactions (i.e., low entropy) but elevated levels of deviant content were most likely to continue antisocial behavior into adulthood. Findings suggest that individual risk for maladaptation may be amplified by early adolescent friendship dynamics organized around deviance.

Actor-observer asymmetries in explanations of behavior : New answers to an old question

Traditional attribution theory conceptualizes explanations of behavior as referring to either dispositional or situational causes. An alternative approach, the folk-conceptual theory of behavior explanation, distinguishes multiple discrete modes of explanation and specific features within each mode. Because attribution theory and the folk-conceptual theory carve up behavior explanations in distinct ways, they offer very different predictions about actor-observer asymmetries. Six studies, varying in contexts and methodologies, pit the 2 sets of predictions against each other. There was no evidence for the traditional actor-observer hypothesis, but systematic support was found for the actor-observer asymmetries hypothesized by the folk-conceptual theory. The studies also provide initial evidence for the processes that drive each of the asymmetries: impression management goals, general knowledge, and copresence.

Inside the virtual casino: a prospective longitudinal study of actual Internet casino gambling

BACKGROUND Participation in Internet gambling is growing rapidly, as is concern about its possible effects on the publics health. This article reports the results of the first prospective longitudinal study of actual Internet casino gambling behaviour. METHODS Data include 2 years of recorded Internet betting activity by a cohort of gamblers who subscribed to an Internet gambling service during February 2005. We examined computer records of each transaction and transformed them into measures of gambling involvement. The sample included 4222 gamblers who played casino games. RESULTS The median betting behaviour was to play casino games once every 2 weeks during a period of 9 months. Subscribers placed a median of 49 bets of euro4 each playing day. Subscribers lost a median of 5.5% of total monies wagered. We determined a group of heavily involved bettors whose activity exceeded that of 95% of the sample; these players bet every fifth day during 17.5 months. On each playing day, these most involved bettors placed a median of 188 bets of euro25. Their median percent of wagers lost, 2.5%, was smaller than that lost by the total sample. CONCLUSION Our findings suggest that Internet casino betting behaviour results in modest costs for most players, while some, roughly 5%, have larger losses. The findings also show the need to consider time spent as a marker of disordered gambling. These findings provide the evidence to steer public health debates away from speculation and toward the creation of empirically-based strategies to protect the public health.

Predicting Early Adolescent Gang Involvement From Middle School Adaptation

This study examined the role of adaptation in the first year of middle school (Grade 6, age 11) to affiliation with gangs by the last year of middle school (Grade 8, age 13). The sample consisted of 714 European American (EA) and African American (AA) boys and girls. Specifically, academic grades, reports of antisocial behavior, and peer relations in 6th grade were used to predict multiple measures of gang involvement by 8th grade. The multiple measures of gang involvement included self-, peer, teacher, and counselor reports. Unexpectedly, self-report measures of gang involvement did not correlate highly with peer and school staff reports. The results, however, were similar for other and self-report measures of gang involvement. Mean level analyses revealed statistically reliable differences in 8th-grade gang involvement as a function of the youth gender and ethnicity. Structural equation prediction models revealed that peer nominations of rejection, acceptance, academic failure, and antisocial behavior were predictive of gang involvement for most youth. These findings suggest that the youth level of problem behavior and the school ecology (e.g., peer rejection, school failure) require attention in the design of interventions to prevent the formation of gangs among high-risk young adolescents.

Disordered gambling, type of gambling and gambling involvement in the British Gambling Prevalence Survey 2007.

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between types of gambling and disordered gambling, with and without controlling for gambling involvement (i.e. the number of types of games with which respondents were involved during the past 12 months). METHODS We completed a secondary data analysis of the 2007 British Gambling Prevalence Survey (BGPS), which collected data in England, Scotland and Wales between September 2006 and March 2007. The sample included 9003 residents, aged 16 or older, recruited from 10 144 randomly selected addresses. 5832 households contributed at least one participant. Post-facto weighting to produce a nationally representative sample yielded 8968 observations. The BGPS included four primary types of measures: participation in gambling (during the past 12 months and during the past 7 days), disordered gambling assessments, attitudes toward gambling and descriptive information. RESULTS Statistically controlling for gambling involvement substantially reduced or eliminated all statistically significant relationships between types of gambling and disordered gambling. CONCLUSIONS Gambling involvement is an important predictor of disordered gambling status. Our analysis indicates that greater gambling involvement better characterizes disordered gambling than does any specific type of gambling.

Virtual harm reduction efforts for Internet gambling: effects of deposit limits on actual Internet sports gambling behavior

BackgroundIn an attempt to reduce harm related to gambling problems, an Internet sports betting service provider, bwin Interactive Entertainment, AG (bwin), imposes limits on the amount of money that users can deposit into their online gambling accounts. We examined the effects of these limits on gambling behavior.MethodsWe compared (1) gambling behavior of those who exceeded deposit limits with those who did not, and (2) gambling behavior before and after exceeding deposit limits. We analyzed 2 years of the actual sports gambling behavior records of 47000 subscribers to bwin.ResultsOnly 160 (0.3%) exceeded deposit limits at least once. Gamblers who exceeded deposit limits evidenced higher average number of bets per active betting day and higher average size of bets than gamblers who did not exceed deposit limits. Comparing the gambling behavior before and after exceeding deposit limits revealed slightly more unfavorable gambling behavior after exceeding deposit limits.ConclusionOur findings indicate that Internet gamblers who exceed deposit limits constitute a group of bettors willing to take high risks; yet, surprisingly, they appear to do this rather successfully because their percentage of losses is lower than others in the sample. However, some of these gamblers exhibit some poor outcomes. Deposit limits might be necessary harm reduction measures to prevent the loss of extremely large amounts of money and cases of bankruptcy. We discuss how these limits might be modified based on our findings.

Sitting at the virtual poker table: A prospective epidemiological study of actual Internet poker gambling behavior

Internet gambling is a potential object of addictive behavior and consequently an important concern for public health. Epidemiological analyses of Internet gambling are necessary to determine the extent of public health threat. This paper reports the results of the first prospective epidemiological study of actual Internet poker gambling behavior. Participants were 3445 Internet gambling service subscribers who enrolled during February 2005. Data include two years of recorded poker outcomes (i.e., chips bought and sold) for each poker session played. Among our sample, we identified two subgroups of poker players. Approximately 95% of the sample bought a median of @?12 worth of chips at each of two poker sessions per week during a median duration from first to last bet of six months. A smaller subgroup (i.e., 5%) of most involved poker players bought a median of @?89 worth of chip at each of 10 sessions per week during a median duration from first to last bet of 18 months. In addition to level differences, we report the differences in patterns of behavior observed between these two subgroups. The analyses presented in this paper suggest that the majority of Internet poker players moderated their behavior based on their wins and losses. A minority of most involved players did not show such moderation. These results have important implications for both gambling-and addiction-related research.