Do adolescents appreciate the risks of smoking? Evidence from a national survey.

PURPOSE: To evaluate whether adolescents understand the risks of smoking when they decide to start. Estimates of objective risks that can be compared with epidemiologic evidence suggest that adolescents overstate the risks. Ratings of personal risk suggest the opposite. METHODS: A nationally representative telephone survey of 300 14- to 22-year-old nonsmokers and 300 14- to 22-year-old smokers was conducted. Respondents estimated both objective and personal risks of smoking, and smokers reported their plans to quit. Objective estimates were compared with both epidemiologic evidence and personal ratings of risk. Regression procedures were used to assess relationships between different estimates of risk and between risk estimates and plans to quit. RESULTS: Two of the three objective estimates of risk revealed high proportions of misunderstanding. Over 40% of smokers and 25% of nonsmokers underestimated, or did not know, the likelihood of smoking-related death, and over 40% did not know, or underestimated, the number of years of life lost owing to smoking. Although young people overestimated lung cancer risk relative to objective data, these estimates are inflated by underestimation of the fatality of lung cancer and by overlap with other illnesses not included in objective risk measures. Young smokers exhibited optimism about personal risks of smoking regardless of their perceptions of objective risk. Both objective and personal measures of risk predicted plans to quit. CONCLUSIONS: Because perceptions of both personal and objective risks are related to plans to quit, antismoking messages should include evidence about risk, particularly to the individual smoker.

Parental influence on adolescent sexual behavior in high-poverty settings.

BACKGROUND: African American adolescents living in high-poverty urban settings are at increased risk for early sexual initiation and sexually transmitted diseases. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether parental strategies to monitor their children's social behavior and to communicate with them about sexual risks help to reduce the initiation of risky sexual behavior and prevent the resulting adverse health outcomes. METHODS: To assess the viability of these strategies, we surveyed a stratified cross-section of African American children aged 9 to 17 years (N = 355) living in urban public housing. Talking computers were used to increase the confidentiality and comparability of the interviews across the wide age range. RESULTS: Children who reported high levels of parental monitoring were less likely to report initiating sex in pre-adolescence (aged < or = 10 years) and reported lower rates of sexual initiation as they aged. Children who reported receiving both greater monitoring and communication concerning sexual risks were also less likely to have engaged in anal sex. Communication was also positively related to the initiation of condom use and consistent condom use. The protective correlates of these parenting strategies were independent of the type of guardian (mother vs other family member). CONCLUSION: Interventions with parents and other guardians to increase monitoring and communication about sexual risks seem to be promising health-promotion strategies for adolescents in high-risk settings.

Early sexual initiation: the role of peer norms.

OBJECTIVE: To elucidate which components of peer norms influence the process of sexual initiation for young adolescents. Design. Prospective cohort study. Setting. Fourteen elementary and middle schools in an urban public school district. Participants. The 1389 sixth-grade students who completed the questionnaire at the beginning (time 1) and at the end (time 2) of the school year comprise the study sample. Mean age at time 1 was 11.7 years. RESULTS: Of students entering the sixth grade, 30% (n = 416) reported having already initiated sexual intercourse, 5% (n = 74) reported initiating sexual intercourse during the sixth-grade school year (initiated group), and 63% (n = 873) reported not having initiated sexual intercourse by the end of the sixth-grade school year (never group). Demographic comparisons revealed that students in the initiated group were significantly more likely than students in the never group to be older (11.9 years vs 11.6 years), male (58% vs 37%), African-American (70% vs 51%), attending a poorer school (87% vs 85%), and living in an area with a high proportion of single-parent families (45% vs 41%). Self-reports and reports of peers' participation in nonsexual risk behaviors were more common for students in the initiated group. Students in the initiated group were more likely than students in the never group to perceive: 1) a high prevalence of sexual initiation among peers; 2) social gains associated with early sexual intercourse; and 3) younger age of peers' sexual initiation. Students in the never group were more likely to believe that sexually-experienced 12-year-old boys would be negatively stigmatized compared with students in the initiated group. Three predictive models were developed to test the relationship between peer norms and the process of initiation. These models demonstrate that the strongest predictor of sexual initiation in sixth grade is having high intention to do so at the beginning of sixth grade. The strongest predictor of high intention is belief that most friends have already had sexual intercourse. Perceptions of social gain and stigma for sexually-experienced 12-year-old boys act independently of intention to decrease risk of early sexual initiation. CONCLUSION: Early sexual intercourse is not an unplanned experience for many teens. Decisions about initiation are strongly bound to social context with peers playing an important role in creating a sense of normative behavior. Specific components of peer norms impact the process of sexual initiation in both positive and negative ways. Interventions aimed at delaying the onset of sexual initiation need to focus on cohort norms as well as on an individual's perceptions and behaviors.

Similarity of risk and protective behaviors among African-American pre- and early adolescent members of naturally occurring friendship groups.

To determine whether self-reported risk and protective behaviors, expectations, and attitudes are more similar among African-American early adolescents within a community-based friendship group than across groups, a cross-sectional study was conducted among 382 African-American youth 9 through 15 years of age forming 76 community-based groups of 3 through 10 same-gender friends. Each member of the friendship group reported his/her own past involvement in nine risk behaviors (sexual intercourse, substance abuse, drug-trafficking, and other delinquent activities) and two protective behaviors (high academic performance and regular church attendance) and their expectations and feelings regarding several of these behaviors. Intraclass correlation coefficients were calculated overall and by gender and age. Members were generally more similar within friendship groups than across groups with regard to several risk behaviors and expectations including sexual intercourse and drug-trafficking. Particularly striking was the similarity among members of "junior" friendship groups (e.g., median age of youth < 11 years) of both risk and protective behaviors and expectations. The finding of enhanced similarity of risk behaviors and expectations among members within groups suggests that intervention delivery through community-based friendship groups may be a useful approach for risk prevention efforts targeting pre-adolescent African-American youth living in low-income settings.

Health interventions for African American and Latino youth: the potential role of mass media.

Children in Latino and African American families are far more likely to live in urban, high-poverty settings that greatly increase risks to healthy development. During adolescence, these settings are particularly hazardous for their role in the social transmission of risk behavior. Community-wide health promotion using local mass media can counteract these influences by reaching preadolescents and adolescents, their parents, and other adults in urban communities with safe-behavior messages. These messages can be designed to make safer behavior more acceptable and normative in the community, to increase awareness of community resources for adolescents, and to reverse the stereotyping and disregard that characterize media content about impoverished communities. Evidence is reviewed that, despite their poverty status, African American and Latino communities have considerable social resources to which community-wide health promotion can appeal, including strong family bonds, religious attachment, and concern about the community. The influence of these resources is exemplified by relatively low rates of adolescent drug use. Health promotion conducted regularly through local mass media could be an effective strategy to improve the health of adolescents in urban communities.

Conformational characteristics of alternating stereo-co-oligopeptides of D- and L-norleucine: influence of an N-methyl group.

The conformational behavior of members of the series Boc-(L-Nle)m-(D-Nle-L-Nle)(n-m)/2-OMe (m = 0 or 1; n = total number of residues) with n < or = to 12, and of analogs of comparable chain length having a NMe-group on the (n - 3)th residue has been investigated. The study has shown that D,L-alternating oligonorleucines behave very differently from stereo-co-oligopeptides of D-alloisoleucine and L-isoleucine, D- and L-valine, or D- and L-leucine. In particular, it has been found that oligonorleucines do not form beta-helices as do the other oligopeptides. Instead, they form aggregates (very likely of the alpha-pleated sheet type), which are insoluble in common organic solvents even at moderate chain lengths. In marked contrast with this behavior, N-methylated analogs such as those studied, with n from 9 to 15, cannot generate very stable aggregates owing to the N-methyl group, and they prefer to form beta-helices. These beta-helices have been found by solution 1H NMR techniques to be almost exclusively of the types beta 4.4 (single-stranded with about 4.4 residues per turn) and decreases increases beta 5.6 (double-stranded, antiparallel, with about 5.6 residues per turn).

Using mass media to reduce adolescent involvement in drug trafficking.

OBJECTIVE: Drug trafficking among adolescents is a newly recognized high-risk behavior that seems to be involving large numbers of youths. Strategies to prevent and/or alter this behavior must be developed and evaluated. In view of the high exposure of adolescents to the mass media, interventionists seeking to reduce adolescent risk behavior have increasingly employed the media in their efforts to reduce adolescent risk behaviors in general. However, not all risk behaviors may be amendable to change as a result of this approach. Therefore, before utilizing this approach to address adolescent drug trafficking, it is important to investigate previous efforts targeting related risk behaviors. RESULTS: Mass media campaigns against the use of drugs have been common in the US and seem to have played a role in reducing consumption of both legal and illegal drugs. The most effective messages seem to focus on the risks of drug use and the social disapproval that attends use. The mass media may increase the influence of these antidrug messages by changing the social climate surrounding drug use. CONCLUSIONS: The mass media may be a particularly effective way to reach adolescents and their parents in communities in which adolescent drug trafficking is prevalent and to unite the institutions that could influence adolescents against involvement in the drug trade. However, intervention efforts must also contend with the economic incentives of the drug trade in poor, central-city communities.

Social influences on the sexual behavior of youth at risk for HIV exposure.

OBJECTIVES: Adolescents are increasingly at risk for infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other sexually transmitted diseases, especially in poor urban minority communities. To aid the design of interventions in these communities, this study investigated the role of knowledge, attitudes, perceived parental monitoring, and peer behavior in the onset and progression of sexual behavior in children at risk for exposure to HIV. METHODS: A computerized personal interview was administered to 300 African-American 9- to 15-year-old children living in six public housing developments in a large US city. RESULTS: Although children's knowledge about the hazards of sex increased with age, their sexual activity also increased (from 12% sexually experienced at 9 years of age to more than 80% experienced at 15 years of age). Parental monitoring appeared able to influence sexual activity. However, the perceived behavior of friends was associated with the rate at which sexual activity progressed with age and the degree to which condom use was maintained with age. CONCLUSIONS: The early onset and prevalence of sexual behavior and the importance of peer group influence call for early interventions that simultaneously influence the parents and peers in children's social networks.

Risk behavior and perception among youths residing in urban public housing developments.

The scientific literature and popular media suggest that variations in housing structure and neighborhood influence risk behaviors among youths living in low-income urban communities. To explore the importance of these factors on early sexual intercourse, substance use, drug trafficking, and school truancy, data from a community-based survey, conducted in six public housing developments in a major eastern metropolis, were analyzed. The survey group consisted of 300 youths aged 9 through 15 years. There were minimal differences in three potential mediators of risk behaviors (e.g., perceived social support, parenting style, and perceived risk exposure) and in self-reported adolescent risk behaviors among youths residing in different housing developments and between youths residing in high-rise and in low-rise structures. These findings do not support the hypothesis that within a risk-dense low-income environment, variations in building structure or in neighborhood are associated with differences in adolescent risk behaviors.

Early initiation of sex and its lack of association with risk behaviors among adolescent African-Americans.

OBJECTIVE: High rates of adolescent homicide, pregnancy, substance abuse, and sexually transmitted diseases underscore the importance of interventions designed to reduce problem behaviors. However, the definition of "problem" behavior and the association with other activities may change between youth cultures. Therefore, greater attention to defining the "problem" behaviors to be targeted will permit more effective utilization of primary vs secondary intervention strategies and identification of high-risk individuals. DESIGN: Two studies of African-American adolescents regarding sexual intercourse, school truancy, substance abuse, and drug trafficking are presented. The first study involved 57 youths (10 to 14 years of age) from a pediatric primary health center and gathered data through pile-sorting. The second study of 300 youths (9 to 15 years of age) from six public housing sites used a questionnaire administered by a "talking" computer. Both studies assessed different self-reported behaviors, feelings about engaging in specific behaviors, and perceptions of friends' behaviors. RESULTS: While 40% of subjects reported having had sex, substantially smaller proportions reported school truancy (14%), illicit drug use (2% to 6%), or drug trafficking (6%). Analyses of reported behaviors, feelings, and perceived peer norms revealed that sex was consistently depicted as forming a different domain from other problem behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: Interventions that rely on primary prevention strategies for sexual intercourse and that identify sexually active youths as at risk for problem behaviors may not be appropriate for African-American adolescents growing up in resource-depleted urban areas.

HIV education for youth: the importance of social consensus in behaviour change.

Most theories of health education focus on change in the knowledge, beliefs, and skills of individuals as causes of behaviour change. We argue that this neglects the important contribution of the social environment in supporting healthier behaviour, and we describe a model of social consensus that allows alternative routes for educational influence at both individual and social levels. This model assumes that basic knowledge and skills for avoiding health threats may not be sufficient for behaviour change unless socially-mediated influences that can inhibit behaviour change are addressed. This is especially crucial given the nature of HIV infection and the controversy surrounding its discussion. We illustrate the potential for social influences to have played a role in inhibiting the adoption of safer sexual behaviour in young people, and use our model to analyse young people's responses to the epidemic as documented in available research. The analysis also suggests possible educational strategies to overcome social obstacles in the future.

CY 208-243: a unique combination of atypical opioid antinociception and D1 dopaminomimetic properties.

Here we describe the potent antinociceptive action of the indolophenanthridine, CY 208-243, which has high affinities to the dopamine D1 binding and the opioid sites as well as to the 5-HT1A site. The antinociceptive action was comparable to that of morphine in most, but not all models of nociception, nevertheless, basic differences exist in its overall profile. Antagonism of CY 208-243's antinociceptive action was only possible with either high doses of naloxone or not at all and no cross-tolerance with morphine in CY 208-243 tolerant rats occurred. The biochemical basis for dependence liability may be absent and no opioid activity was observed in cultured hippocampal cells. Physical dependence did not occur after programmed administration in the rhesus monkey, nor did CY 208-243 cause respiratory depression in the rat (rather a stimulation). Lack of generalization in fentanyl-trained rats strongly suggests that CY 208-243 lacks opioid-like subjective cues. The coexistence of D1 dopaminergic and atypical opioid agonist properties represents a unique pharmacodynamic combination which is not shared with any other analgesic, and may provide safe and innovative pain therapy.

FS 205-397: a new antipyretic analgesic with a paracetamol-like profile of activity but lack of acute hepatotoxicity in mice.

FS 205-397 has been designed to mimic or improve the antipyretic/analgesic profile of paracetamol but without inducing hepatic failure. FS 205-397 offers advantages over acetylsalicylic acid since it has caused no gastric lesions in rats and unlike paracetamol it produced no hepatotoxicity in animal models. The antinociceptive potency of FS 205-397 was at least that of acetylsalicylic acid and paracetamol and in some models it was somewhat more potent. FS 205-397 was even active in the hot plate test, a model in which most non-narcotics are inactive. FS 205-397 will offer potent analgesic and antipyretic therapy in man based on an innovative biochemical principle which eliminates the undesirable toxic effects associated with most other non-narcotic analgesics.

Valorphin: a novel chemical structure with opioid activity.

Valorphin is a semisynthetic derivative of dihydrovaltrate with opioid analgesic activity. In vitro binding studies using brain homogenates from rat and guinea-pig indicate a preference for the mu-receptor site. Bath application to cultured cerebellar Purkinje cells inhibited the spontaneous firing, similar to the effect seen with morphine. Analgesic activity has been demonstrated in the hot plate and the tail flick test in the mouse and the Randall-Selitto test in the rat. In the rhesus monkey valorphin was self-administered, but naloxone challenge induced only mild withdrawal signs. Valorphin is a novel chemical entity, structurally not related to known opioids, which interacts preferentially with opiate mu-receptors.

Personality traits: fact or fiction? A critique of the Shweder and D'Andrade systematic distortion hypothesis.

According to Shweder and D'Andrade (1979, 1980), covariation in memory-based ratings of people's behavior is determined more by semantic relations between behavior categories than by actual co-occurrence. They claim therefore that the existence of personality traits is largely a fiction supported by our conceptions rather than by reality. Contrary to this hypothesis, we argue that semantics are logically implicated in both the observation and recall of behavior and that support for this assumption can be found if immediate encodings of behavior are as sensitively scaled as subsequent memory-based ratings. Results of a demonstration experiment supported this conclusion. When immediate encodings were scaled across all behavior categories, the relation between semantics and memory was completely explained by the role of semantics in the immediate encoding of behavior. However, when immediately encoded behavior was simply identified (rather than scaled), support for systematic distortion was obtained. Previous support for the systematic distortion hypothesis may therefore be attributed to the use of too simple a coding scheme for the measurement of immediate behavior. Implications for the existence of personality traits and for personality measurement are discussed.

Inhibitory effect of a new opioid agonist on reproductive endocrine activity in rats of both sexes.

Morphine and other opioid compounds such as the new benzomorphan derivative, bremazocine, inhibit the secretion of luteinizing hormone in rats of both sexes (1, 2, 3, 4). The aim of our work was to compare in rats the LH-secretion inhibiting properties of bremazocine, a putative opiate kappa agonist (5), with those of the mu agonist morphine. Acute administration of bremazocine (0.005 - 1 mg/kg s.c.) or of morphine (10 - 20 mg/kg s.c.) diminished serum LH levels and spontaneous ovulation in female rats in a dose-dependent manner. Chronic treatment with bremazocine significantly diminished LH and testosterone secretions in male rats which in turn led to a fall in weight of the prostate gland; prolactin and FSH secretions were not influenced significantly. The mu-antagonist naloxone, which increases LH release in rats, in acute experiments significantly antagonized the inhibiting effect of morphine, but not that of bremazocine on LH secretion. Neither the basal nor the LHRH-stimulated secretion of LH in pituitary cell cultures were changed by bremazocine (10(-11) to 10(-5) M), however the release of LHRH-like activity from hypothalamic fragments was significantly impaired by 10(-7) M bremazocine. In conclusion, the data presented here show that bremazocine is a new non-morphine-like opioid agonist which selectively inhibits LH release in rats.

Social adaptation of mentally retarded adults in community settings: a social-ecological approach.

Evidence regarding the social networks of mentally retarded adults in community settings is reviewed. These networks appear to be widespread and consist primarily of peers. The social ecology of community settings is a critical factor in the development and maintenance of these networks. Given the considerable importance of such networks to the social support of nondisabled adults, the furtherance of peer support among mentally disabled adults appears to be a desirable goal. Some approaches to achieving this goal were suggested. Carefully consideration of the social ecology of community settings for mentally disabled adults may usefully supplement individual social skills training as a method for improving social adaptation to community life.

Unexpected opioid activity in a known class of drug.

Tifluadom, although structurally a 1,4 benzodiazepine, has no affinity for the 3H-flunitrazepam binding site, but is a potent displacer of 3H-bremazocine from its opioid binding site. Tifluadom is characterised as an opiate kappa-receptor agonist in vitro and in vivo with potent analgesic activity in animals and no dependence potential.