Patterns of alcohol use among middle school students in rural communities: Associations with community violence exposure

Stress-coping theory posits that exposure to stressors, such as community violence, increases risk for early alcohol initiation. The current study identified patterns of alcohol use in an ethnically diverse sample of early adolescents in rural communities, and examined relations between different forms of exposure to community violence and severity of adolescents' alcohol use patterns. Participants were 5011 middle school students (46.4% non-Hispanic White, 25.5% Latinx, and 13.4% Black; 50% female) living in rural communities in the southeastern United States. Latent class analysis identified subgroups that differed in their patterns of lifetime and past 30-day alcohol use, and subgroup differences in exposure to community violence. Five subgroups were identified: abstainers (56.5%), initiators of wine and beer (12.5%); moderately frequent wine and beer users (10.3%); moderately frequent wine, beer, and liquor users who got drunk (12.0%); and highly frequent wine, beer, and liquor users who got drunk (8.6%). Subgroups differed across sex, grade, and racial-ethnic background. Subgroups characterized by severe alcohol use reported more frequent exposure to community violence and physical victimization, while controlling for nonviolent stressors. Consistent with stress-coping theory, the results indicate that experiencing physical victimization and witnessing community violence robustly relate to adolescents' high-risk alcohol use.

Early Adolescents' Social Goals in Peer Conflict Situations: A Mixed Methods Study

Identification of goals is a key social-cognitive process that guides whether adolescents engage in aggressive or nonviolent behavior during social conflicts. This study investigated early adolescents' goals in response to hypothetical social conflict situations involving close friends and peers. Participants (n = 160; Mage = 12.7, 53% female) were 7th graders from two urban and one rural middle school. On average, participants identified 2.5 goals for each situation. Qualitative analysis using a grounded theory approach identified nine themes representing the goals generated by participants: instrumental-control, relationship maintenance, maintain image and reputation/self-defense, conflict avoidance, seek more information, revenge, tension reduction, moral, and stay out of trouble. Quantitative analysis indicated that female participants identified more goals than male participants, but there were few differences in their types of goals. There were few differences across school sites. The findings highlight the variety of social goals specific to the developmental period of early adolescence.

A Meta-Analysis Linking Parent-to-Child Aggression and Dating Abuse During Adolescence and Young Adulthood

Relationship continuity and social learning theories provide support for parent-to-child aggression as one potential explanatory factor for dating abuse (DA); however, empirical results are mixed across studies as to the strength of this association. This meta-analysis sought to estimate the overall size of this effect among adolescent and young adult samples and investigate potential moderating factors including sample and measurement variables. Records were identified using a computerized search of databases with several keywords. Peer-reviewed journal articles and dissertations were included if they measured both parent-to-child aggression and DA perpetration and/or victimization among adolescents (aged 12-18) or young adults (aged 18-29). Sixty-six records met inclusion criteria, yielding 370 unique effect sizes for the relation between parent-to-child aggression and DA across 94 unique samples. As hypothesized, there was a small-to-medium effect size between parent-to-child aggression and subsequent DA during both adolescence and young adulthood. The strength of these findings was consistent across DA outcome (perpetration and victimization) and both physical and psychological forms, youth and parent gender, and youth age. Stronger associations were found when the gender of the parental aggressor was undefined compared to either a defined paternal or maternal aggressor. Records using the Conflict Tactics Scale to measure both parent-to-child aggression and DA yielded stronger associations compared to sources that used different measures, but single informant versus multiple informants did not yield any differences.

Patterns of Adolescents' Appraisals of Responses to Problem Situations: Associations with Aggression, Victimization, and Contextual Factors

Although considerable research has examined factors that influence social-cognitive processes related to aggression, few studies have examined the factors that influence adolescents' appraisal of the effectiveness of responses, particularly nonviolent alternatives to aggression. This study addressed that gap by examining patterns of adolescents' perceived effectiveness of nonviolent and aggressive responses to hypothetical problem situations and their relations with aggression, victimization, and individual and contextual risk factors. The participants were a predominantly African American (90%) sample of 1469 students (55% female; mean age = 12.7 years; age range = 11-16) from three middle schools who completed measures of perceived effectiveness, self-efficacy, aggression and victimization, and contextual factors. Ratings of adolescents' physical, relational, and verbal aggression and victimization, nonviolent and prosocial behavior were also obtained from their teachers. Latent class analysis identified four subgroups of adolescents including distinguishes effective, mixed support, everything works, and nothing works. Subgroups differed on measures of aggression, victimization, prosocial and nonviolent behavior, self-efficacy for nonviolence, witnessing community violence, and parents' and peers' support for nonviolence and aggression. The findings underscore the importance of designing violence prevention programs to target the unique needs of subgroups of adolescents.

Modified telomeric repeat amplification protocol: a quantitative radioactive assay for telomerase without using electrophoresis

A polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based radioactive telomerase assay was developed in our laboratory which is quantitative and does not require electrophoretic evaluation (designated as TP-TRAP; it utilizes two reverse primers). The main steps of the assay include (1) extension of a 20-mer oligonucleotide substrate (MTS) by telomerase, (2) amplification of the telomerase products in the presence of [(3)H]dTTP using the substrate oligonucleotide and two reverse primers (RPC3, 38 mer; RP, 20 mer), (3) isolation of the amplified radioactive dsDNA by precipitation and filtration, (4) determination of the radioactivity of the acid-insoluble DNA. The length of the telomerase products does not increase on amplification. This valuable feature of the assay is achieved by utilization of the two reverse primers and a highly specific PCR protocol. The assay is linear, accurate, and suitable for cell-biological studies where slight quantitative differences in telomerase activity must be detected. The assay is also suitable for screening and characterization of telomerase inhibitors, as shown with a chemically modified oligonucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitor [(s(4)dU)(35)].