Child Policy Publications: Adolescents
2011
Preliminary Healthy Eating Outcomes of SNaX, a Pilot Community-Based Intervention for Adolescents — 2011
This project developed and designed Students for Nutrition and eXercise (SNaX), an intervention aimed at translating school obesity-prevention policies into practice with peer advocacy of healthy eating and school cafeteria changes.
The Premises Is the Premise: Understanding Off- and On-Premises Alcohol Sales Outlets to Improve Environmental Alcohol Prevention Strategies — 2011
Outlets that sell alcohol on the premises (e.g., bars or restaurants) do more to prevent alcohol sales to minors than outlets such as convenience or liquor stores.
Propensity Scoring and the Relationship Between Sexual Media and Adolescent Sexual Behavior: Comment on Steinberg and Monahan (2011) — 2011
Longitudinal research has demonstrated a link between exposure to sexual content in media and subsequent changes in adolescent sexual behavior, including initiation of intercourse and various noncoital sexual activities.
Reducing the Impact of Children's Exposure to Violence: Results of the National Evaluation of Safe Start Promising Approaches — 2011
RAND's evaluation of Safe Start Promising Approaches identified program successes and challenges in implementing programs for children exposed to violence. The evaluation results, though largely inconclusive, can inform similar efforts going forward.
Regional Price Differences and Food Consumption Frequency Among Elementary School Children — 2011
Geographic variation in food prices across the US affects youth's consumption of fruit, vegetables and milk; price variation does not seem to affect consumption of fast food or soft drinks, perhaps because consumption is less price sensitive.
Relationships Between Adolescent Sexual Outcomes and Exposure to Sex in Media: Robustness to Propensity-Based Analysis — 2011
A reanalysis of data from earlier studies continues to show associations between sex in the media and adolescent sexual outcomes. The evidence does not prove causality but suggests cautions for parents.
Resisting Smoking When a Best Friend Smokes: Do Intrapersonal and Contextual Factors Matter? — 2012
The strong link between having a best friend who smoked and increased adolescent smoking isn't affected by individual factors such as self-esteem, depressing and access to cigarettes.
Romantic Attraction and Adolescent Smoking Trajectories — 2011
This analysis examines smoking behaviors across sexual orientation groups by describing how same- and opposite-sex romantic attraction, and changes in romantic attraction, are associated with trajectories of smoking over six years.
Substance Use Among Middle School Students: Associations with Self-Rated and Peer-Nominated Popularity — 2011
More-popular middle school students are more likely to be cigarette smokers, drinkers, and marijuana users, as well as past-month drinkers, suggesting that popularity is a risk factor for substance abuse.
Using a Cross-Study Design to Assess the Efficacy of Motivational Enhancement Therapy-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy 5 (MET/CBT5) in Treating Adolescents with Cannabis-Related Disorders — 2011
Youth with marijuana problems who received a research-based treatment (motivational enhancement therapy plus cognitive behavioral therapy [MET/CBT5]) had better outcomes than similar youth treated in community-based programs.
A Worksite Parenting Program That Works — 2011
Summarizes research on Talking Parents, Healthy Teens, a worksite-based parenting program designed by RAND and University of California at Los Angeles researchers that improves communication between parents and their adolescents on sexual health.
2010
Adolescent Romantic Relationships and Change in Smoking Status — 2010
Whether or not an adolescent stops or begins smoking is influenced by whether or not his/her romantic relationship smokes.
Adolescents' Perceived Risk of Dying — 2010
Although adolescents' expectations are accurate or moderately optimistic for many significant life events, they greatly overestimate their chances of dying soon. The authors examine whether adolescents' mortality judgments are correlated with their perceptions of direct threats to their survival. Contrary to the folk wisdom that adolescents have a unique sense of invulnerability, the individuals studied here reported an exaggerated sense of mortality, which was highest among those reporting greater threats in their lives.
Are Adolescents Talking with Their Parents About Sex Before Becoming Sexually Active? — 2010
Examines parent-child discussions of sexual behavior. Finds consistency in the timing and content of such discussions; however, many parents and children do not discuss key topics, such as birth control, before adolescents become sexually active.
Association Between Adolescent Viewership and Alcohol Advertising on Cable Television — 2010
This study found that cable TV ad placements on for beer, spirits, and alcopops increased as adolescent viewership rose from 0% to 30%, especially for female viewers.
Associations Between Abstinence in Adolescence and Economic and Educational Outcomes Seven Years Later Among High-Risk Youth — 2010
This study found that abstinence from all substance use for 12 months among a sample of 13-17 year olds was associated with positive long-term educational and economic outcomes relative to use of any substance.
Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression in Canadian and Chinese Adolescents — 2010
There may be culturally-relevant differences in the etiology of depression in Canadian and Chinese adolescents.
Correspondence of Verbal Descriptor and Numeric Rating Scales for Pain Intensity: An Item Response Theory Calibration — 2010
This study provides a methodological crosswalk between two response scales for measuring pain in older adults so that either can be used in practice, depending on the preference of the clinician and respondent.
Evidence-Based Mental Health Programs in Schools: Barriers and Facilitators of Successful Implementation — 2010
Schools with greater support from administrative leadership and clinician networks are more successful in implementing evidence-based mental health programs to help students deal with the impact of traumatic events.
Examination of Perceived Neighborhood Characteristics and Transportation on Changes in Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior: The Trial of Activity in Adolescent Girls — 2010
Physical activity is declining and sedentary behavior is increasing among adolescent girls but neighborhood and transportation characteristics do not seem to be the reason.
Friendship Networks and Trajectories of Adolescent Tobacco Use — 2010
This article examines how friendship networks in adolescence are linked to tobacco use trajectories through a combination of analytic techniques that traditionally are located in separate literatures: social network analysis and developmental trajectory analysis.
Improving Access to and Utilization of Adolescent Preventive Health Care: The Perspectives of Adolescents — 2010
Adolescents and parents reported that the most effective way to encourage preventive care utilization among teens was to directly address provider-level barriers related to the timeliness, privacy, confidentiality, comprehensiveness, and continuity of their preventive care.
The Influence of Personal, Family, and School Factors on Early Adolescent Substance Use — 2010
This study of middle school students in Southern California found that racial and ethnic variations in substance use among young adolescents are influenced by individual, family and school factors.
Long-term Effect of Community-Based Treatment: Evidence from the Adolescent Outcomes Project — 2010
A growing literature on adolescent drug treatment interventions demonstrates the efficacy of research therapies, but few rigorous studies examine the effectiveness of community-based treatments that are more commonly available to and utilized by youths and their families, the criminal justice system and other referring agencies. This study evaluates the effects 72-102 months after intake to a widely disseminated community-based treatment model, residential therapeutic community treatment, using data from RAND's Adolescent Outcomes Project.
Mental Disorders Among Gifted and Nongifted Youth: A Selected Review of the Epidemiologic Literature — 2010
Given the ongoing debate over whether giftedness is associated with mental health disorders, there is a great need to highlight and compare results from the most methodologically rigorous studies.
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