The natural history of cigarette smoking: predicting young-adult smoking outcomes from adolescent smoking patterns

Assessed the magnitude of risk that adolescent cigarette smoking carries for adult smoking. Using a longitudinal, prospective design, results indicate that even infrequent experimentation in adolescence significantly raises the risk for adult smoking and that regular (at least monthly) adolescent smoking raises the risk for adult smoking by a factor of 16 compared to nonsmoking adolescents. Relative risk was also increased by an early onset of smoking and by a stable, uninterrupted course from experimentation to regular smoking. Relative risk did not significantly vary by age or sex. The continuity of smoking behavior between adolescence and adulthood supports the importance of primary prevention programs directed at adolescent populations.     

Counselor Competency in the Courtroom

This article outlines general courtroom procedures and offers systematic practical advice for the counselor testifying as an expert witness. Major topics include the counselor role in court, preparing for testimony, answering questions, and dealing with the cross-examination.     

From adolescence to adulthood: age-related changes in beliefs about cigarette smoking in a midwestern community sample.

The current study used a cohort-sequential design to examine age-related changes in health-relevant beliefs from the middle school years through age 37 in a large, midwestern, community sample (N=8,556). Results suggest systematic age-related changes such that beliefs in the personalized risks of smoking declined in middle school and then increased, beliefs in generalized health risks increased beginning in the middle school years, and values placed on health as an outcome decreased in the high school years and then increased. These findings suggest that intervention programs must counter declining personalized risk perceptions among middle school students and declining values placed on health among high school age students.     

The role of sincere amends and perceived partner responsiveness in forgiveness

In a sample of 188 people currently in a romantic relationship, the authors examined the extent to which perceiving a partner as responsive and sincere in making amends relates to participants' forgiveness of a partner after a real‐life hurtful event. Specifically, it was predicted that sincere amends would be associated with greater forgiveness because it conveys that one's partner has understood and validated one's experience of the hurtful event. Results supported this mediational model. Further, exploratory analyses suggested that this meditational model is moderated by event severity and relationship satisfaction. Discussion focuses on understanding how this work might help to inform the dynamic process of forgiveness in couples.     

Do executive and reactive disinhibition mediate the effects of familial substance use disorders on adolescent externalizing outcomes?

The present study examined the potential mediating roles of executive and reactive disinhibition in predicting conduct problems, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, and substance use among adolescents with and without a family history of substance use disorders. Using data from 247 high-risk adolescents, parents, and grandparents, structural equation modeling indicated that reactive disinhibition, as measured by sensation seeking, mediated the effect of familial drug use disorders on all facets of the adolescent externalizing spectrum. Executive disinhibition, as measured by response disinhibition, spatial short term memory, and "trait" impulsivity, was associated with ADHD symptoms. Moreover, although executive functioning weakness were unrelated to familial substance use disorders, adolescents with familial alcohol use disorders were at risk for "trait" impulsivity marked by a lack of planning. These results illustrate the importance of "unpacking" the broad temperament style of disinhibition and of studying the processes that underlie the commonality among facets of the externalizing spectrum and processes that predict specific externalizing outcomes.     

The intergenerational transmission of implicit and explicit attitudes toward smoking: Predicting adolescent smoking initiation

This study examined the intergenerational transmission of implicit and explicit attitudes toward smoking, as well as the role of these attitudes in adolescents’ smoking initiation. There was evidence of intergenerational transmission of implicit attitudes. Mothers who had more positive implicit attitudes had children with more positive implicit attitudes. In turn, these positive implicit attitudes of adolescents predicted their smoking initiation 18-months later. Moreover, these effects were obtained above and beyond the effects of explicit attitudes. These findings provide the first evidence that the intergenerational transmission of implicit cognition may play a role in the intergenerational transmission of an addictive behavior.     

A longitudinal study of children of alcoholics: predicting young adult substance use disorders, anxiety, and depression

This study tested the specificity of parent alcoholism effects on young adult alcohol and drug abuse/dependence, anxiety, and depression, and tested whether adolescent symptomatology and substance use mediated parent alcoholism effects. Participants were from a longitudinal study in which a target child was assessed in adolescence and young adulthood with structured interview measures (N = 454 families at Time 1). Results showed unique effects of parent alcoholism on young adult substance abuse/dependence diagnoses over and above the effects of other parental psychopathology. There was some evidence of parent alcoholism effects on young adult depression and of maternal alcoholism effects on young adult anxiety, although these were not found consistently across subsamples. Mediational models suggested that parent alcoholism effects could be partially (but not totally) explained by adolescent externalizing symptoms.