This article presents abstracts from the 2011 AMERSA National Meeting. It includes 2011 best abstracts on research, programmatic, and curricular presentations.

The major aim of this study was to examine the role of social problem solving in the relationship between personality and substance use in adolescents. Although a number of studies have identified a relationship between personality and substance use, the precise mechanism by which this occurs is not clear. We hypothesized that problem-solving…

A substantial proportion of high school students consume alcohol, with nearly a quarter of 12th grade students reporting binge drinking in the past two weeks. Drinking alcohol in adolescence is associated with a variety of other risky behaviors, as well as with an increased likelihood of long-term problems reaching into adulthood. This "Adolescent…

Young people's participation in sexual risk behaviours is commonly linked with participation in a range of other risky behaviours, and in particular with substance use behaviours. This cross-sectional analysis of the sixth sweep of the Belfast Youth Development Study aimed to examine associations between substance use and sexual activity and…

This issue of "The NSDUH Report" examines the rates of nonmedical use of Adderall[R] in the past year among full-time college students aged 18 to 22 and comparably aged persons who were not full-time college students. All findings presented in this report are annual averages based on combined 2006 and 2007 data. Full-time college students aged 18…

Monitoring the Future (MTF) is designed to give sustained attention to substance use among the nation's youth and adults. It is an investigator-initiated study that originated with and is conducted by a team of research professors at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. Since its onset in 1975, MTF has been continuously…

Monitoring the Future (MTF), now in its 41st year, is a research program conducted at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research under a series of investigator-initiated, competing research grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse--one of the National Institutes of Health. The study comprises several ongoing series of…

Objective: To compare health risks of 2 subgroups of weapon carriers: victimized and nonvictimized youth. Methods: 2003-2007 NYC Youth Risk Behavior Surveys were analyzed using bivariate analyses and multinomial logistic regression. Results: Among NYC teens, 7.5% reported weapon carrying without victimization; 6.9% reported it with victimization.…

This study examined how girls' initial use of alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana related to changes in depressive, generalized anxiety, and social anxiety symptoms, and whether these changes varied based on which internalizing symptom trajectories the girls were on. Data came from the Pittsburgh Girls Study, a community-based study of girls…

The Montana Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) is administered by the Montana Office of Public Instruction every two years to students in grades 7 through 12. The purpose of the survey is to help monitor the prevalence of behaviors that not only influence youth health, but also put youth at risk for the most significant health and social problems…

Objective: This study tested a cognitive-behavioral treatment protocol for adolescents with a co-occurring alcohol or other drug use disorder (AOD) and suicidality in a randomized clinical trial. Method: Forty adolescents (M[subscript age] = 15 years; 68% female, 89% White) and their families recruited from an inpatient psychiatric hospital were…

Results of the 2009 "Monitoring the Future" (MTF) study document the disturbing prevalence among teens of abuse of prescription and over-the-counter drugs. The data show, for example, that seven of the substances most commonly abused by high school seniors are pharmaceuticals. Many parents believe they are powerless to influence their teens.…

The majority of youth with substance use disorders (SUDs) manifest one or more co-occurring psychiatric disorders. Consequently, many of these youths are being prescribed with psychotropic medications. As prescribing rates continue to increase for early-onset psychiatric disorders, potential risk for substance of abuse-psychiatric medication…

The objective of this study was to profile and compare alcohol and other drug (AOD) use attitudes and behaviors in three pharmacy colleges. Student surveys of AOD use attitudes and behaviors were conducted at one southwestern and two midwestern pharmacy colleges. Response was 86.5% (566/654). Reported past-year use included alcohol 82.8%, tobacco…

This study used latent class regression to identify latent trajectory classes based on individuals' diagnostic course of substance use disorders (SUDs) from late adolescence to early adulthood as well as to examine whether several psychosocial risk factors predicted the trajectory class membership. The study sample consisted of 310 individuals…