You've Got E-Mail: A Pilot Study Examining the Feasibility and Impact of a Group-Based Technology-Training Intervention Among Older Adults Living in Residential Care.

Older adults living in residential care often experience challenges in sustaining meaningful social relationships, which can result in compromised health and well-being. Online social networking has the potential to mitigate this problem, but few studies have investigated its implementation and its effectiveness in maintaining or enhancing well-being. This pilot study used a cluster-randomized pre-post design to examine the feasibility of implementing a 12-week group-based technology-training intervention for older adults (n = 48) living in residential care by exploring how cognitive health, mental health, and confidence in technology were impacted. Analysis of variance revealed significant increases in life satisfaction, positive attitudes toward computer use, and self-perceived competence among participants who received the intervention, but increased depressive symptoms for the control group. These findings suggest that, despite challenges in implementing the intervention in residential care, group-based technology training may enhance confidence among older adults while maintaining or enhancing mental health.

Say you'll be there: Associations between observed verbal responses, friendship quality, and perceptions of support in young adult friendships.

Friendships are a primary source of social support during young adulthood; however, little is known about the factors associated with young adults feeling greater support during interactions with friends. We examined how micro-level verbal responses and macro-level judgments of friendship quality were associated with perceptions of support following an interaction between friends. Same-gender friend dyads (N = 132; 66.2% female; 18-24 years, M age = 19.63) took turns speaking about a problem, then participants rated their perceptions of support given and received following the task. We coded each participant's verbal responses while in the listening role. Actor Partner Interdependence Models (APIMs) revealed significant partner effects for negative engagement responses, such that greater negative engagement responses were linked with the partner perceiving poorer support both given and received. Models revealed significant actor effects for supportive responses, such that greater supportive responses predicted the actor perceiving better support both given and received. Additionally, models revealed significant actor effects of friendship quality predicting actors' perceiving better support both given and received. Finally, exploratory models revealed minimal interactions between a few types of verbal responses and positive friendship quality. Taken together, results suggest that (a) negative verbal responding styles may be more meaningfully associated with partners' perceptions of support in the moment than are supportive behaviours, whereas (b) supportive verbal responding styles may be more meaningfully associated with actors' perceptions of support in the moment, and (c) actors' judgments of friendship quality are strongly associated with their overall perceptions of support, and a critical factor to consider in future research.

Peer Information and Substance Use Decision Making in Street-Involved Youth.

In the context of adolescent substance use, peers are a primary source of both influence and information. Substance-related peer information sharing is a relatively understudied phenomenon, particularly in street-involved youth. We recruited 84 youth from a community drop-in center to complete a survey assessing substance use and peer influence on drug use. A subset of youth completed a semi-structured interview assessing factors related to peer information sharing around drug use. Results showed that peer influence was highly relevant to drug use patterns in street-involved youth. Trust in the person supplying information, personal and peer experience, and salience of information played important roles in youths' assessments of drug-related information exchanged with peers. Implications for improving community information dissemination strategies are discussed.

Depression and ADHD-Related Risk for Substance Use in Adolescence and Early Adulthood: Concurrent and Prospective Associations in the MTA.

Childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is prospectively linked to substance use and disorder. Depression emerging in adolescence is an understudied risk factor that may explain some of this risk. In the present study, we considered mediating and moderating roles of adolescent depression in explaining this association by using longitudinal data from the prospective 16-year follow-up of the Multimodal Treatment Study of ADHD (MTA). Participants were 547 children diagnosed with DSM-IV ADHD Combined Type, and 258 age- and sex-matched comparison children. In adolescence, depressive symptoms did not exacerbate effects of childhood ADHD on any substance use. For both groups, time-varying and average depressive symptoms were associated with more frequent use of all substances. Prospectively, we found no evidence of depression mediation to adult substance use. However, adolescent depression moderated the association between childhood ADHD and adult marijuana use. Although adults without ADHD histories used marijuana more frequently if they had elevated depressive symptoms in adolescence, marijuana use by adults with ADHD histories was independent of their adolescent depression. In adulthood, depression diagnoses and ADHD persistence continued to operate as independent, additive correlates of substance use risk. Our findings suggest a circumscribed role for depression in substance use risk that adds to, but does not alter or explain, ADHD-related risk.