Spatial dynamics of alcohol availability, neighborhood structure and violent crime.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the relationship between neighborhood social structure, alcohol outlet densities and violent crime in Camden, New Jersey. METHOD: Data pertaining to neighborhood social structure, violent crime and alcohol density were collected for 98 block groups, and analyzed using bivariate, multivariate and spatial analyses. RESULTS: Each type of analysis showed that those areas with high alcohol outlet densities experienced more violent crime than low-density areas, after controlling for neighborhood social structure. In the multivariate regression analysis, alcohol outlet densities explained close to one fifth of the variability in violent crime rates across block groups--more than any one of the neighborhood structural variables included in the analysis. These findings were replicated in the spatial analysis, which also showed that alcohol outlet densities contributed significantly to violent crime within target block groups but not in adjacent block groups. CONCLUSIONS: High alcohol outlet density is associated with high rates of violent crime in this urban community. Spatial analysis suggests that alcohol outlets elevate the rate of violent crime within the immediate neighborhood context, not in surrounding neighborhoods.

Perfectionism in women with binge eating disorder.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined self-oriented (SOP), socially prescribed (SPP), and other-oriented (OOP) perfectionism in 127 obese women with binge eating disorder (BED). METHOD: Relationships between eating disorder and general psychopathology variables and SOP, SPP, and OOP were assessed. Levels of SOP, SPP, and OOP in the BED sample were compared with those of 32 normal weight women with bulimia nervosa (BN) and 60 obese non-eating-disordered individuals (NED). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test models of the maintenance of BED. RESULTS: Only SPP was significantly associated with eating disorder variables related to BED. All three groups demonstrated similar levels of SPP and OOP. BN and BED groups scored significantly higher than the NED group on SOP only. SEM resulted in two models with good fits. DISCUSSION: Further research is needed on the roles of SPP and SOP in BED and on weight and shape overconcern in BED maintenance models.

Using social indicators to inform community drug and alcohol prevention policy.

In recent years, the federal government has begun to require state agencies to allocate drug prevention resources according to the needs of local communities. The methods by which this is to be accomplished have not been described, and most published social indicator studies in the field of drug abuse research have used county-level data which are too insensitive to local needs to be of use in resource allocation decisions. The present study describes a needs assessment in drug abuse prevention in the state of New Jersey using municipal-level social indicator data. In addition, it examines the extent to which the resource allocation of one state prevention agency can be predicted by the municipal-level social indicators. Thirty-six social indicators pertaining to 508 municipalities were used in the study, and data were analyzed using principal component analysis and hierarchical regression analysis. Five factors were extracted from the principal component analysis, two of which clearly describe "high risk" municipalities and one of which clearly describes "low risk" municipalities. The regression analysis showed that these factors explained very little of the variance in the state agency's drug prevention spending. The study shows that social indicators can be used to distinguish between different levels of need for drug prevention services at a municipal level, and that these data can be used to inform decisions concerning resource allocation.

Alcohol availability and domestic violence.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among sociodemographic variables, alcohol outlet density, and rate of domestic violence in New Jersey. Data were obtained for the 223 largest municipalities in the state and were examined using factor analysis and bivariate and multivariate analyses. Three sociodemographic factors were extracted through factor analysis. These explained 58% of the variance among municipalities in rates of domestic violence. One factor--termed social disadvantage--explained the greatest amount of unique variance (42%). Alcohol outlet density added nothing to the sociodemographic model and did not interact with any of the three sociodemographic factors. The findings show that, in the state of New Jersey, higher levels of alcohol outlet density are not geographically associated with higher rates of domestic violence. These findings may be due to limitations in the data sets employed in the study, limitations of the macrolevel analysis employed, and/or the complex nature of the relationship between alcohol use and domestic violence.

Violent crime and alcohol availability: relationships in an urban community.

The relationship between violent crime, neighborhood sociodemographic characteristics, and alcohol outlet densities in Newark, New Jersey is reported, thus extending previous research of municipalities at more refined levels of analysis. Alcohol outlet densities were significant predictors in regression models, but rates of violent crime were better predicted in larger units (R2 = .673 for the census tract level vs. .543 at the census block group level). Alcohol outlet densities, however, were more predictive of violent crime at smaller units of analysis (change in R2 with the addition of alcohol outlet densities was .194 at the census tract level vs. .278 at the census block group level). Findings suggest that alcohol outlets represent a form of "undesirable land use" in urban neighborhoods that are a manifestation of increasingly concentrated economic disadvantage in the United States.

Risk of assaultive violence and alcohol availability in New Jersey.

OBJECTIVES: This study examined the relationship between rate of assaultive violence and density of alcohol outlets in New Jersey. METHODS: Data pertaining to assaultive violence, alcohol outlet density, and sociodemographic factors were obtained from municipalities in New Jersey (n = 223) and assessed through bivariate and multivariate analyses. RESULTS: Sociodemographic factors accounted for 70% (R(2)=.70) of the variance in the rate of assaultive violence. Outlet density did not add significantly to the explained variance of this model. CONCLUSIONS: In New Jersey, alcohol outlet density is not geographically associated with higher rates of violence. Alternative methodological and analytic techniques are required to better specify the relationship between alcohol availability and violence.

Adolescent risk factors and the prediction of persistent alcohol and drug use into adulthood.

Adolescence is a time of heightened risk for relatively intensive alcohol and other drug use behaviors. However, heavy use is often "adolescence-limited," giving way to moderation or cessation in adulthood. We examined individual differences in risk factors at age 18 that were predictive of alternative alcohol and drug use trajectories from adolescence to adulthood. Data were collected prospectively on four occasions from participants in the Rutgers Health and Human Development Project. Subsets of individuals representing three prototypical trajectories of (1) consistently low alcohol and drug use during adolescence and early adulthood; (2) heavier alcohol or drug use during adolescence, but not during adulthood; and (3) persistent heavier alcohol or drug use from adolescence into adulthood were found to differ significantly on a number of intrapersonal, behavioral, and environmental risk factors, with the adolescence-limited group consistently scoring between the other two groups. Based on these results, a composite risk index was constructed. In the total sample, however, when the effect of alcohol and drug use behaviors at age 18 was controlled, the composite risk index was unrelated to adult (age 28 to 31) levels of alcohol and drug use and consequences. Thus, in this community sample, well-documented risk factors assessed in adolescence did not exhibit any direct, longterm effects on use intensity and problems in adulthood. It is concluded that the assessed risk factors (disinhibition, cognitive structure, play, deviant coping, friends' deviance, and stressful life events) are not immutable, but subject to individual and normative changes during the transition from adolescence to adulthood. More research is needed to determine the long-term stability of risk factors, and how changes in risk factors over time, discontinuities in what constitutes risk in adolescence versus adulthood, and proximal adult protective factors that compensate for early risk contribute to developmental patterns of use.

The generalizability of the dependence syndrome across substances: an examination of some properties of the proposed DSM-IV dependence criteria.

DSM-III-R and proposed DSM-IV schemes for the diagnosis of psychoactive substance use disorders are based largely on the dependence syndrome concept. However, there is an absence of empirical support for the generalizability of the dependence syndrome across substances. This study examines how consistently proposed DSM-IV dependence criteria function to measure dependence across seven substances: alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, stimulants, hallucinogens, sedatives and opiates. Using structured research diagnostic interviews, dependence diagnoses were determined for 295 American subjects in treatment for alcohol/drug problems. Several factor analytic techniques were used to assess whether criteria formed single dimensions and how consistently individual criteria measured dependence across substances. The ability and consistency of criteria to measure a continuum of severity across substances were also assessed. Only subjects who used the substance at least six times were entered in the analyses. Overall, results provide strong support for the DSM approach for alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, stimulants, sedatives and opiates, but not for hallucinogens. Results indicate that a single strong factor adequately described the criteria for these six substances. All criteria loaded strongly and uniformly on single factors indicating that all were good measures of dependence. Criteria provided a dimensional measure of severity based on several indices for these substances. In addition, four criteria provided relatively stable indicators of high or low severity across these substances. Results did not support the use of dependence criteria for hallucinogens as these criteria did not form a single factor. Results suggest that very few hallucinogen users experience an inability to cut down or control use, a key indicator of loss of control.

Personality and alcohol and marijuana use: patterns of convergence in young adulthood.

This study looks at similarities and differences between users of alcohol only and users of both alcohol and marijuana ranging in age from 18 to 24. Assessment of use included measures of use intensity, use context, use functions, and use problems. Personality variables included measures of temperamental/affective tendencies, evaluative appraisals of self, and stress associated with negative appraisals of one's self and one's environment. The two strongest patterns of convergence were found to be similar across groups and to be consistent with mean differences between both groups. It is concluded that the two patterns characterize different segments of the population of users.

Risk factors of adolescent drug use: an affect-based interpretation.

We examined the continuity and stability of relational patterns among putative risk factors and measures of total drug use over the age period of 12 to 18. Using Marlatt's (1987) affect-based model of moderation versus dependence, risk factors were classified on the basis of their assumed relationships to (a) positive and negative affect and (b) low versus high constraint. It was hypothesized that two distinct developmental pathways characterize the emergence of drug use in a normal population sample of adolescents: one indicative of low constraint and a predominance of positive affect, the other indicative of low constraint and a predominance of negative affect. Results of principal components analyses generally support the hypothesis. Theoretical and methodological implications are discussed.

Towards the assessment of adolescent problem drinking.

Longitudinal data were obtained from a nonclinical sample of 1,308 male and female adolescents covering the age range from 12 to 21. Factor analyses of 52 symptoms and/or consequences of alcohol use yielded three problem dimensions. In addition, a unidimensional, 23-item scale (the Rutgers Alcohol Problem Index, RAPI) was constructed with an internal consistency of .92. Correlations between RAPI and alcohol-use intensity were moderately strong for all age groups at each test occasion (ranging from .20 to .57), yet low enough to suggest that identification of problem drinkers requires both types of measures. The results suggest that the RAPI may be a useful tool for the standardized and efficient assessment of problem drinking during adolescence.

Relation of personality to adolescent alcohol and drug use: a coping perspective.

A link between personality and substance use is established by assuming that (a) substance use which occurs in response to problem situations represents a present-oriented, emotion-focused coping behavior, and (b) adolescents who lack ego strength and ego control are more likely to rely on emotion-focused coping behaviors. Longitudinal data used to test the validity of these assumptions indicate that above-average levels of use intensity and of coping use are exhibited by adolescents who either maintain below-average levels of ego strength and ego control or who fall from average to below-average levels over a 3-year interval.

Alcohol and marijuana use in relation to adolescent stress.

This study was aimed at investigating the role of alcohol and drug use in relation to emotional self-regulation in 15- and 18-year-old adolescents. It was found that the stronger this link, the heavier the use of alcohol and marijuana. The findings suggest that the experience of strained social relationships and a heightened sense of powerlessness/helplessness may induce adolescents to rely more heavily on substance use as a means of emotional self-regulation which requires little effort and ability, promises instant effects, and provides a sense of control.

The Study Of Multivariate Change Structures: A Conceptual Perspective.

Joreskog's LISREL model is applied to the case of longitudinal data. However, instead of postulating causal relationships between individual differences obtained at successive points in time, the developmental model proposed here, assumes causal relationships between initial individual differences and individual differences in subsequent intraindividual changes over a specified time interval. More specifically, causal relationships are postulated at two levels: (a) factor scores, and (b) factor loading patterns. It is possible to define four prototypes of developmental continuity/discontinuity that may characterize actual change phenomena.