Effects of a Tailored Follow-Up Intervention on Health Behaviors, Beliefs, and Attitudes

Background: The high rates of relapse that tend to occur after short-term behavioral interventions indicate the need for maintenance programs that promote long-term adherence to new behavior patterns. Computer-tailored health messages that are mailed to participants or given in brief telephone calls offer an innovative and time-efficient alternative to ongoing face-to-face contact with healthcare providers. Methods: Following a 1-year behavior change program, 22 North Carolina health departments were randomly assigned to a follow-up intervention or control condition. Data were collected from 1999 to 2001 by telephone-administered surveys at preintervention and postintervention for 511 low-income, midlife adult women enrolled in the Well-Integrated Screening and Evaluation for Women Across the Nation (WISEWOMAN) program at local North Carolina health departments. During the year after the behavior change program, intervention participants were mailed six sets of computer-tailored health messages and received two computer-tailored telephone counseling sessions. Main outcomes of dietary and physical activity behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes were measured. Results: Intervention participants were more likely to move forward into more advanced stages of physical activity change (p = 0.02); control participants were more likely to increase their level of dietary social support at follow-up (p = 0.05). Both groups maintained low levels of reported saturated fat and cholesterol intake at follow-up. No changes were seen in physical activity in either group. Conclusions: Mailed computer-tailored health messages and telephone counseling calls favorably modified forward physical activity stage movement but did not appreciably affect any other psychosocial or behavioral outcomes

Comparison of TAGteach Error-Correction Procedures to Teach Beginner Yoga Poses to Novice Adult Practitioners

TAGteach is a multi-component intervention package involving the use of teaching with acoustical guidance (TAG), a teaching procedure that uses an auditory stimulus (e.g., click sound) to indicate that a desired behaviour has occurred (Fogel, Weil, & Burris, 2010). TAGteach has been found to effectively improve performance in sports (Fogel et al., 2010), dance (Quinn, Miltenberger, & Fogel, 2015), surgical techniques (Levy, Pryor, & McKeon, 2016), and walking (Persicke, Jackson, & Adams, 2014). An adapted alternating treatments design was used to compare the effectiveness and efficiency of the standard TAGteach error-correction procedure and a modified TAGteach error-correction procedure to teach four novice adult yoga practitioners beginner yoga poses. Results showed that both error-correction procedures were effective for all participants; however, the relative efficiency of these error-correction procedures remains unclear. Results are discussed in terms of limitations and considerations for future research

Liquor licences issued to Australian schools

BACKGROUND: Children's positive socialisation to alcohol is associated with early initiation of drinking and alcohol-related harm in adult life. Internationally, there have been reports of adults' alcohol consumption at school events in the presence of children. The aim of this research was to identify the conditions under which Australian schools are required to apply for a liquor licence and the associated prevalence of liquor licences for these events where children were likely to be present. METHODS: A document review was conducted to examine temporary liquor licensing legislation. Quantitative analysis was used to examine relevant licensing data. Coding criteria was developed to determine school type, student year levels and the likely presence of children. RESULTS: Four jurisdictions provided data on 1817 relevant licences. The average annual licences/100 schools was highest amongst Independent schools followed by Catholic and public (government) schools. The rates were highest in Queensland and Victoria where children were present at 61% and 32% of events respectively. CONCLUSIONS: While there are legislative differences across jurisdictions, the prevalence of adults' alcohol use at school events in the presence of children may reflect the various education department policies and principals' and school communities' beliefs and attitudes. Licences are not required for all events where liquor is consumed so the prevalence of adults' use of alcohol at school events is likely to be higher than our analyses imply. Such practices may undermine teaching about alcohol use in the school curriculum and health promotion efforts to develop alcohol-free events when children are present

Human development of the ability to learn from bad news

Humans show a natural tendency to discount bad news while incorporating good news into beliefs (the “good news–bad news effect”), an effect that may help explain seemingly irrational risk taking. Understanding how this bias develops with age is important because adolescents are prone to engage in risky behavior; thus, educating them about danger is crucial. We reveal a striking valence-dependent asymmetry in how belief updating develops with age. In the ages tested (9–26 y), younger age was associated with inaccurate updating of beliefs in response to undesirable information regarding vulnerability. In contrast, the ability to update beliefs accurately in response to desirable information remained relatively stable with age. This asymmetry was mediated by adequate computational use of positive but not negative estimation errors to alter beliefs. The results are important for understanding how belief formation develops and might help explain why adolescents do not respond adequately to warnings

Parental Socialization and Children’s Susceptibility to Alcohol Use Initiation

ABSTRACT. Objective: This study examined relations between children’s susceptibility to alcohol use initiation and parents’ alcohol-specific beliefs, attitudes, and practices and whether these relations vary by parental alcohol use. Method: The sample comprised 1,050 pairs of mothers or mother surrogates and their third-grade children (51.8% female) recruited for a 4-year intervention trial. Families were recruited from school districts located primarily in North Carolina; the school districts provided permission for study recruitment materials to be distributed to families but were not otherwise involved in the research. Data are from the baseline cross-sectional telephone interviews conducted with the mothers and children. Children’s susceptibility to alcohol use initiation is based on child reports, and parental alcohol-specifi c beliefs, attitudes, and practices are based on maternal reports. Results: All parental alcohol socialization attributes were statistically signifi cantly associated as hypothesized with child susceptibility to alcohol use initiation. In the final full model, the mother’s disapproving attitude about child sipping and the interaction between mother–child communication and parental alcohol use frequency were uniquely signifi cantly associated with child susceptibility. Talking with the child about harmful consequences of alcohol use was associated with reduced child susceptibility in families where parents drank alcohol more frequently but had no relationship with child susceptibility in families where parents drank infrequently. Conclusions: The normative interactions that parents have with their elementary school children may inhibit or facilitate children’s susceptibility to alcohol use. To the extent that child susceptibility leads to early onset of use, prevention programs directed at parents to reduce child susceptibility are indicated

A systematic review of the unique prospective association of negative affect symptoms and adolescent substance use controlling for externalizing symptoms.

This systematic review examines whether negative affect symptoms (i.e., anxiety, depression, and internalizing symptoms more broadly) predict subsequent adolescent substance use after controlling for co-occurring externalizing symptoms. Following PRISMA procedures, we identified 61 studies that tested the association of interest. Findings varied depending on the type of negative affect symptom and to some extent on the substance use outcome. The most consistent associations were evident for depressive symptoms, particularly as predictors of substance use composite scores. No clear association between anxiety and substance use or between internalizing symptoms and substance use was evident, and indeed these associations were as often negative as positive. Mixed findings regarding the depression-substance use association, however, also call for greater attention to potential moderating factors that may help define who, when, and in what context depression serves as an important risk factor for later substance use above and beyond risk associated with externalizing symptoms

Nanoparticle–membrane interactions

Engineered nanomaterials have a wide range of applications and as a result, are increasingly present in the environment. While they offer new technological opportunities, there is also the potential for adverse impact, in particular through possible toxicity. In this review, we discuss the current state of the art in the experimental characterisation of nanoparticle-membrane interactions relevant to the prediction of toxicity arising from disruption of biological systems. One key point of discussion is the urgent need for more quantitative studies of nano-bio interactions in experimental models of lipid system that mimic in vivo membranes

Adolescent aggression: The role of peer group status motives, peer aggression, and group characteristics

Recent studies of youth aggression have emphasized the role of network-based peer influence processes. Other scholars have suggested that aggression is often motivated by status concerns. We integrate these two veins of research by considering the effects of peer status motivations on subsequent adolescent aggression, net of their own status motivations, prior aggression, and peer behavior. We also explore different levels at which peer effects may occur, considering the effects of reciprocated and unreciprocated friendships as well as larger, meso-level peer groups. We anticipate that peer group effects are magnified by both size and boundedness as measured by Freeman’s (1972) Segregation Index. We find that, net of the adolescent’s aggression at time 1, both the aggressive behaviors and the status valuations of friends independently increase the likelihood of aggression at time 2, six months later. The aggressive behavior of friends who do not reciprocate the adolescent’s friendship nomination has particular impact. The average status valuation of peer groups increases their members’ likelihood of aggression, even after controlling for their own attitudes about status, their friends’ attitudes, and their friends’ aggressive behavior. This effect is magnified in large groups and groups with high Freeman segregation scores

An Examination of Social Disorganization and Pluralistic Neighborhood Theories with Rural Mothers and Their Adolescents

Neighborhoods matter for youth; yet, most literature focuses on neighborhood deficits rather than strengths. To understand how best to capture neighborhoods, this study used census- and perception-based measures of neighborhood characteristics as suggested by social disorganization and pluralistic neighborhood theories, respectively, to determine the association between structural characteristics and perceptions of positive and negative neighborhood characteristics. The ethnically diverse (59% White and 34% African American) sample (N = 1414) consisted of early adolescents (53% female) and their mothers. We found that participants perceived distinct positive and negative neighborhood characteristics. For adolescents and mothers, neighborhood structural characteristics were positively associated with risk perceptions (e.g., physical and social disorder) but differently associated with positive neighborhood characteristics. In addition, participants perceived their neighborhoods differently (e.g., adolescents perceived less informal social control but more cohesion than their mothers). We discuss the importance of the neighborhood context, particularly positive neighborhood characteristics, for rural families