Experiencing victimization, such as cyberbullying, discriminatory harassment, or bullying in adolescence is associated with health risk behaviours. However, inconsistent findings in the literature examining the associations between different types of victimization and binge drinking and smoking exist. This study investigated the association…

Antisocial peer behavior and low parental knowledge of adolescents' activities are key interpersonal risk factors for adolescent substance use. However, how the magnitude of associations between these risk factors and substance use may vary across adolescence remains less well understood. The present study examined the age-varying associations of…

The characteristics of and risk factors associated with binge drinking among South Korean and American adolescents were identified in this study. Data on adolescents in the 9th to 12th grades were extracted from two nationwide data sets: the Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey System and the U.S. Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System.…

Objective: Despite growing awareness about the harmful physiological effects of energy drinks, especially among young people, there is little regulation governing the marketing and sale of these products to adolescents. Thus, in contrast to substances such as cigarettes and alcohol, energy drinks are readily available to adolescents, and widely…

The purpose of the study was to describe adherence to screen time (ST) and physical activity (PA) recommendations among Canadian youth. The present study was based on a representative sample of Canadian students from Grades 7 through 12 (N = 47,203). ST and PA as well as demographic (gender, ethnicity, grade, and province of residence) and…

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of school violence on recent alcohol use and episodic heavy drinking among seventh- through 12th-grade students. A total of 54,631 students completed a survey assessing substance use and other risky behaviors. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the research questions. Results…

Background: The Gateway Drug Theory suggests that licit drugs, such as tobacco and alcohol, serve as a "gateway" toward the use of other, illicit drugs. However, there remains some discrepancy regarding which drug--alcohol, tobacco, or even marijuana--serves as the initial "gateway" drug subsequently leading to the use of…

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…

Data from the spring 2010 Minnesota student survey were analyzed in order to quantify the risk for suicide ideation as a function of bullying variability. Other factors available from the survey included alcohol and other drug use, within-family violence and abuse, mental health symptoms. In addition, a factor analysis revealed a protective…

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…

Bullying in schools has received increasing attention since its implication in a number of school-based shooting incidents. A number of protective factors have been identified as reducing risk behaviors such as substance abuse among adolescents. This framework, however, has not been examined with respect to bullying victims. The results of a…

This study used a representative metropolitan sample to make longitudinal comparisons of college-bound and non-college-bound youth on incidents and predictors of heavy drinking. Respondents in the six-wave study were ages 13-16 at wave 1 and 18-21 at wave 6 (n's ranged from roughly 425-500 for different analyses). College/non-college comparisons…

This study tested whether pro-alcohol peer influences and prosocial involvement account for increases in drinking during the transition into emerging adulthood and whether these mechanisms differ depending on college attendance and/or moving away from home. The authors used structural equation modeling of prospective data from 825 young men and…

Despite the success of many drug and alcohol prevention programs, drug and alcohol use by adolescents continues to be a problem. One important factor in preventing drug and alcohol use may be determining, in a non-intrusive manner, which students are most at risk for drug involvement. In the present study, the predictive relationship between…

Examined relationship between alcohol use and career decision-making readiness among tenth and twelfth grade students (n=222). Found students equally prepared to make career decisions; found no gender differences in career decidedness in either grade. Students who were heavy users of alcohol scored higher on career decision-making readiness than…