Higher accepted friends are known to influence the alcohol misuse of lower accepted friends, but not the reverse. The present study was designed to address the origins of this influence: Are higher accepted friends particularly "influential" or are lower accepted friends particularly "susceptible" to influence? To address this…

The aim of the current study was to investigate the relationship between adolescents' social support, their internalising and externalising behaviour problems, and their alcohol consumption. Adolescents attending Grade 7-10 (N = 329), answered questionnaires regarding their perceived social support (from parents, teachers, classmates, and…

Little is known about how adolescents' peer relations might alter whether sport participation is associated with alcohol use. Consistent with social learning theory, we found that sport participation was protective against alcohol use if these peers had low alcohol use, but athletes were likely to use alcohol if their sport friends and teammates…

School violent victimization is a serious public health problem among youth. The current study investigated the association between youth alcohol use and school violent victimization among middle school and high school students ("N" = 54,361). The PRIDE national survey for Grades 6-12 was administered to youth in their classrooms.…

Background: This article examines the effect of early adolescent alcohol use on mid-adolescent school suspension, truancy, commitment, and academic failure in Washington State, United States, and Victoria, Australia. Also of interest was whether associations remain after statistically controlling for other factors known to predict school outcomes.…

Previous research suggests that sexual minority youth have poorer health-related outcomes than their heterosexual peers. The purpose of this study is to determine whether sexual orientation disparities in mental health and substance use increase, decrease, or remain the same during the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Data are from Waves…

This study seeks to provide a greater understanding of the factors that determine the perceived availability of alcohol and its role in predicting adolescents' alcohol use. Participants were 151,703 7th-12th grade students (50% female) from a sample of 219 rural communities across the United States, with oversampling for predominantly…

Existing research suggests that sexual minority youth experience lower levels of well-being, in part because they perceive less social support than heterosexual youth. Sexual minority youth with strong family relationships may demonstrate resilience and increased well-being; however, it is also possible that the experience of sexual stigma may…

Alcohol use was studied in 158 adolescents with visual impairments and 537 sighted adolescents in Germany. The students with visual impairments reported lower levels of alcohol use and drunkenness, and between-group differences increased across adolescence. The lower alcohol use by students with visual impairments was explained, in part, by the…

Alcoholic beverage consumption among high school students has shifted from beer to liquor. The current longitudinal study examined the effects of beverage-specific alcohol use on drinking behaviors among urban youth. Data included 731 adolescents who participated in Project Northland Chicago and reported consuming alcohol in 7th grade. Logistic…

This study examined the link between victimization and sexual orientation and how this link contributes to social-emotional health, extending to school-related outcomes among adolescents. Of additional interest was whether having caring adult support was a protective factor in reducing the risk for high levels of distress or enhancing positive…

The study aims were to examine (i) adolescents' attitudes towards family members who use a wheelchair in relation to other health problems and conditions, and (ii) the association between perceived wheelchair stigma and socio-demographic factors. Data were based on surveys from 2790 seventh to 12th grade students derived from the 2007 cycle of the…

Analyzing problem-behavior trajectories can be difficult. The data are generally categorical and often quite skewed, violating distributional assumptions of standard normal-theory statistical models. In this article, the authors present several currently available modeling options, all of which make appropriate distributional assumptions for the…

This paper outlines early findings from the Tasmanian-based Social Norms Analysis Project (SNAP). The Social Norms model is presented as a theoretically informed, evidence-based model for reducing alcohol-related harm in youthful populations by utilising the complex and often positive contributions peer groups make to adolescent health and…

This article compares prevalence estimates of substance use and delinquent behavior in Washington State, United States and Victoria, Australia, two states chosen for their different policy environments around problem behavior. Few comparisons of international differences on rates of multiple problem behavior exist, and most are based on methods…