Drug and alcohol use of school-age children in a rural community

Strengthening families program (10-14): effects on the family environment

This study examined whether parent-youth dyads participating in the Strengthening Families Program 10-14 (SFP 10-14) would demonstrate greater postprogram family cohesion, communication, involvement, and supervision and if youth would report less alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs involvement in contrast to a comparison group. From 16 randomly selected schools, we recruited 167 parent-youth dyads: 86 from intervention and 81 from comparison schools. The intention-to-treat analysis found one significant change in family environment. Considering dose, it was found that among dyads receiving a full dose, all the outcomes were in the expected direction and effect sizes were moderate. Among dyads receiving a partial dose, 10 of 18 outcomes were in the direction opposite that expected. Youth participation in alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs was very low and did not differ postprogram. Although the expected outcomes were not realized, findings descriptive of dosage effects make a valuable contribution to the field. Study of factors that distinguish intervention completers from noncompleters is recommended.

Evaluating Content Validity and Test-Retest Reliability of the Children's Health Risk Behavior Scale

OBJECTIVE

Describe the instrument development process and report the validity and reliability of the Children's Health Risk Behavior Scale (CHRBS), a scale designed to screen for health risk behaviors among youth aged 10-13 Years.

METHODS

Domain identification and item generation using the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and testing relevance and test-retest reliability among a target audience sample of 77 fifth graders in their classrooms in two separate public school districts.

RESULTS

Youth performed their tasks as expert item reviewers effectively. Twenty-one items comprise the CHRBS with a reading level determined to be at the third grade.

CONCLUSIONS

We have developed a reliable and valid measure to assess late elementary youth's participation in health risk behavior.

Parent-child communication processes: preventing children's health-risk behavior

PURPOSE

Review individual, family, and environmental factors that predict health-risk behavior among children and to propose parent-child communication processes as a mechanism to mediate them.

CONCLUSIONS

Improving parent-child communication processes may: reduce individual risk factors, such as poor academic achievement or self-esteem; modify parenting practices such as providing regulation and structure and acting as models of health behavior; and facilitate discussion about factors that lead to involvement in health-risk behaviors.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

Assessment strategies to identify youth at risk for health-risk behavior are recommended and community-based strategies to improve communication among parents and children need development.

Effects of Communication Skills Training on Parents and Young Adolescents From Extreme Family Types

PROBLEM

What were the effects of a communication skills training intervention among a sample of young adolescents and parents who scored in the "extreme" range of the Circumplex Model of Family Systems?

METHODS

Thirty-seven young adolescents and a parent (intervention group) participated in communication skills training 2 hours/week for 6 weeks. Their responses on measures of satisfaction with the family system and perceptions of communication were compared with those of 47 young adolescents and a parent who scored in the extreme range but did not participate in the training (control group).

FINDINGS

Fathers and young adolescents demonstrated no change as a result of the program. Mothers who participated in skills training perceived communication with their young adolescent as more open than control mothers, but became increasingly dissatisfied with the family system.

CONCLUSION

This universal, community-based, family-focused intervention may not be indicated for extreme families.

Alcohol and drug use of inter-city versus rural school age children

The purpose of this study of seventy-nine children was to determine: 1) the prevalence and type of substance use in inter-city and rural eight to twelve-year-old children; and 2) the relationships between child substance use, self-esteem, peer substance use, and family climate. The conceptual framework for the study was a modification of Kumpfer and Turner's Social Ecology Model (1991). Nineteen percent of the children had used alcohol or drugs. Thirty-three percent of the children acknowledged having friends who used substances. Inter-city children reported more alcohol and marijuana use, while the rural children reported more use of inhalants. The responses of both inter-city and rural children also indicated that there were problems with substance use and family violence in the home. Self-esteem and affiliation with drug using peers were significantly correlated with substance use of the child.