Biological background knowledge and learning from a drug and alcohol education program.

The authors asked whether having a base of relevant biological knowledge put school children in a better position to understand the effects of alcohol and cocaine and to learn about these effects when exposed to a curriculum presenting a physiological theory of drug action. Participants were 337 ethnically diverse 3rd- through 6th-grade students who were pretested, trained, and posttested. Multiple regression analyses revealed that knowledge of the basic functions of the heart, blood, and brain predicted certain drug-knowledge variables. Students with greater biological background knowledge also learned more from instruction, a finding with implications for enhancing drug and other health education programs.

Differences between Black and White elementary school children's orientations toward alcohol and cocaine: a three-study comparison.

To trace the origins of race differences in substance use, this study examined differences between Black and White elementary school children's knowledge of alcohol and cocaine, beliefs about their short- and long-term effects, and attitudes toward and intentions to use them across three independent samples (N = 181, N = 287, N = 234). Black children were more negatively oriented toward alcohol and cocaine than White children from an early age. Most notably, in all samples Black children had less positive attitudes toward adult alcohol use and lower intentions to use alcohol. Black children were also more likely to attribute negative long-term health and social effects to alcohol and cocaine use, but there were few significant race differences in knowledge or in expectancies regarding short-term effects of use. Since race differences in beliefs, exposure to alcohol, and socioeconomic factors could not explain race differences in attitudes toward substance use, other cultural differences must be considered.

Definitional issues in emotion regulation research.

Operational definitions of emotion regulation are frequently unclear, as are links between emotion regulation measures and underlying theoretical constructs. This is of concern because measurement decisions can have both intentional and unintentional implications for underlying conceptualizations of emotion regulation. This report examines the implications of some such decisions, including (a) focusing on types versus total amount of emotion regulation, (b) determining distinctiveness of measures of emotion versus emotion regulation strategies, (c) deciding whether and how to examine temporal sequencing of strategy use and emotion, d) using discrete versus global emotion measures, and (e) determining when emotion is being regulated. Finally, the need for better conceptualizations and empirical assessments of adaptive (vs. maladaptive) emotion regulation is discussed.

Teaching a coherent theory of drug action to elementary school children.

This study examined whether two versions of a drug and alcohol curriculum explaining how substances affect behavior and health, one version more causally coherent than the other, were more effective than a control curriculum on disease in changing school-age children's (N=327) beliefs and attitudes regarding cocaine and alcohol. Few differences were found between the two drug and alcohol curricula. Compared to children receiving the control curriculum, however, both treatment groups demonstrated greater understanding of the circulation of alcohol and cocaine throughout the body, the true long-term effects of these substances, and the stimulant effects of cocaine. Moreover, they had less positive attitudes and intentions toward cocaine. Several differences were evident at both a 3-month post-test and a 1-year follow-up, pointing to the potential value of applying an intuitive theories perspective in designing drug prevention and other health education programs.