The Role of Parenting in Alcohol and Tobacco Use Among Latino Adolescents.

Parents can impact adolescent substance use, but it is unclear which substances are most affected. This study compared associations between parenting behaviors and alcohol and tobacco use to see if parenting was equally related to both behaviors. Alcohol and tobacco use data were collected from 252 Latino adolescents living along the San Diego-Tijuana border. Logistic regression was used to test parenting behaviors' impact. Parenting was protective against alcohol use, but not related to tobacco use. Substance using peers affected both alcohol and tobacco use. Alcohol prevention efforts among Latino adolescents should target parenting behaviors.

Latino parenting practices: a comparison of parent and child reports of parenting practices and the association with gateway drug use.

Parent and adolescent self-reports are the most common sources for measuring parenting practices. This study's purpose was to compare how parent and adolescent reports of parenting behaviors differentially predict adolescent gateway drug use. The sample consisted of 252 Latino adolescent-parent dyads. After controlling for potential confounding influences, only adolescents' reports about their parents' parenting behaviors were significant and explained 38% of the variance in gateway drug use. Practitioners may recommend to parents seeking parenting advice that they solicit feedback from their adolescent to ensure parenting efforts are received in the manner they were intended.

The effects of types of social support from adult children on depression in elderly persons.

Employing a stressors-mental health outcomes model, this study examines the effects of four newly developed measures of functional social support from adult children on the depressive symptomatology of elderly persons. Data derive from structured interviews of a community, stratified probability sample of adults aged 50 and over (N =1,174). The stressors examined are undesirable life events and level of disability. Scales representing four types of social support provided by adult children to their elderly parents are employed: caring and concern (CC), social integration (SI), love and affection (LA), and instrumental support (IN). We observed their differential effects on depression in a model which includes sociodemographic factors, disability, and stressful life events. Among the expressive scales (CC, SI, and LA), operationalizations of Cobb's definition of social support, CC and SI show inverse though modest main effects on depression. Conversely, IN exhibits no significant effects. Salutary effects of expressive support are maximized when CC is high. Only SI exhibits a buffering effect. Implications of these and other findings are discussed.

Use of newsletters to promote environmental political action: an experimental analysis.

The managers of beach businesses were randomly assigned to receive no intervention or two newsletters per week for 6 weeks that presented economic consequences of damage to coastal water quality and how to contact politicians. The percentage of proenvironmental political contacts was significantly greater in the experimental (newsletter) group than in the control group. Logistical regression showed that contacts in the newsletter group were more than five times that of controls after adjusting for history of contacts and predisposition to take such action. Results suggest that the intervention can promote political action that could influence environmental policies and human health.

12-month prevalence of DSM-III-R psychiatric disorders among Mexican Americans: nativity, social assimilation, and age determinants.

The burden of disease attributable to mental illnesses has major costs and human services implications in the United States. Mexican Americans compose two thirds of the nation's largest and fastest-growing minority group, Latinos. We report 12-month DSM-III-R psychiatric disorder rates among Mexican Americans derived from a population survey of immigrants and US-born adults of Mexican origin conducted in rural and urban areas of central California. Rates of 12-month total mood, anxiety, and substance disorders were 14.2% for immigrant women, 12.6% for immigrant men, 27.8% for US-born women, and 27.2% for US-born men. For immigrants, younger age of entry and longer residence in the United States were associated with increased rates of psychiatric disorders. Three dominant explanations are reviewed to explain these differences: selection, social assimilation and stress, and measurement artifact. Our results and other research studies collectively support a social assimilation explanation based on aversive impact on health behaviors and protective resources such as families. Greater social assimilation increases psychiatric morbidity, with rates for subjects who are US-born of Mexican origin approximately the same as rates for the US general population.